Rain favours East Gippsland in latest seven day totals

Farmers in eastern Victoria received up to 140mm of rain in the past week but there was no rain at all in large parts of north-eastern Victoria and southern NSW.

Large tracts of south-eastern Australia are still crying out for rain as early winter rain fails to change fortunes of farmers.

While eastern Victoria received up to 140mm in the past week, there was no rain at all in large parts of north-eastern Victoria and southern NSW while the Western District had minimal falls.

Seven-day rainfall totals to the end of the weekend showed the big winners were in East Gippsland, where Mallacoota recorded 140mm, Marlo 113mm, Orbost 62mm and Bairnsdale 31mm.

It was a different story in the Western District where Derrinallum had the highest weekly fall of just 5mm, while Mortlake recorded 3.6mm and Ballarat 2mm.

Centres such as Benalla, Bendigo, Birchip and Horsham had no rain at all.

While there were high hopes for follow up falls after rain in late May, it’s failed to eventuate for many areas.

Nutrien southern Australian livestock co-ordinator Ron Rutledge said the season was proving challenging for many of the most favoured farming areas.

“It seems like the dearer the price of the land, the worse the season is,” Mr Rutledge said.

“The break came too late and everyone is playing catch up.”

Mr Rutledge said Victoria was fully stocked, and many producers had been feeding for months.

He said Flinders and King islands, which were considered extremely safe in terms of season, had been battling drought-like conditions and that 27,000 cattle had gone through Port Wellington since January in an attempt to lighten numbers.

North east Victorian cattle producer Dennis Heywood from Everton said it had been a “pretty tight year”.

“We have been feeding lucerne and ryegrass hay to our cattle to keep their condition up,” Mr Heywood said.

“We had 17mm in early April and nothing else until we had 40mm a couple of weeks ago but we need more rain for growth.

“Fortunately the weather has been reasonably kind for the cattle but we have had eight frosts.”

Matthew Sparke from Sparke Agricultural and Associates at Horsham said 80 per cent of the Wimmera cropping country was struggling.

“We’ve had patchy crop establishment and we just keep getting these rainfall events that are 10-15mm or less,” Mr Sparke said.

“We are getting 5mm or 8mm a fortnight apart and then we get a couple of heavy frosts that are drying things out.”

Mr Sparke estimated about 5 per cent of the cropping country in the Wimmera had established well, mainly on light soils or areas that had received thunderstorms.

The concern was for canola, he said, much of which had been in the ground for nine weeks and some had not emerged.

“I still think canola could be OK but as for resowing, it’s better to be looking at it (crops already up) than to be looking for it,” he said.

Weather forecasts have predictions of up to 50mm in parts of eastern Victoria for the coming week, between 10-15mm for the Western District, and 5-10mm for southern NSW and north-east Victoria.