Rain brings relief but muddy paddocks test livestock producers

Winter rain has helped to ease drought conditions but muddy paddocks are taking a toll. See how much has fallen in the past seven days.

Winter rain has lifted hopes across drought-stricken Victoria, but bogged up paddocks are creating a new set of challenges for farmers who are hand feeding stock.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, in the past seven days up until Tuesday morning, widespread rain has fallen across farming regions, delivering valuable moisture to paddocks.

Archerton topped the list with 75mm, followed by 73mm at Whitlands and 70mm at Dohertys. Harris Lane recorded 69mm, and Upper Buckland received 68mm.

Cheshunt and Hunters Hill each measured 63mm, while Charnwood had 62mm and Mongans Bridge 61mm. Strathbogie, Wrightley, Jamieson and Balook all received 55mm.

The steady rainfall was expected to benefit pasture growth and top up soil moisture heading into late July. However, falls were scant for some locations including Maffra, Ouyen, and Werrimull, with just 6mm.

In NSW, Tumbarumba had 28mm, Tooma 24mm, Crookwell 21mm, Trunkey Creek 20mm, Orange 20mm and Albury 19mm.

Western District farmer Andrew Nagorcka of Hamilton said rain was making the paddocks boggy and it was difficult considering the amount of hand feeding of stock that was taking place.

Hamilton has received 26mm of rain in the past seven days.

Farmers are looking for some sunshine to help crop and pasture growth. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“I’m happy to be called a whinger, but I need to say we don’t want a heap more just at this stage,” he said.

While grateful for the reprieve after dry conditions, he said the wet weather was making feeding sheep more challenging.

“The paddocks are muddy and the sheep are walking the grain into the ground,” he said.

“Hopefully, we can get a bit of fine weather, and then there will be some light at the end of the tunnel.”

He said the weather at the moment was typical for July in Hamilton.

“It’s cold and we have showery days,” he said.

About half of his sheep are being hand-fed. The other half have been moved back onto pastures.

He said permanent pastures had really suffered from the dry autumn.

Crops were progressing slowly, and growth was behind normal.

In the Goulburn Valley, Peter Lawless of Yarrawonga said he had received up to 15mm in the past week.

“It is just perfect on top of what we had earlier,” he said.

However, Mr Lawless agreed that the cold daytime temperatures were slowing growth.

“It is amazing how things get growing and moving along on a sunny day,” he said.

While the weather was cold, there hadn’t been any frosts of significance, and a lot of canola was at full ground cover. But there were still crops with staggered germination that were struggling.

In the Wimmera at Rupanyup, Rodney Weidemann said he received 3.5mm in the past three days on top of 11mm last week.

“We still need a decent dump; we have had a couple of smaller rainfall events of 6mm and 5mm and are looking for more,” he said.

“There is talk of more rain, but today, here, it is blue skies,” he said.

Mr Weidemann said the crops had emerged, but they had been “smacked by frost.”

“They need moisture,” he said.

“The livestock are doing it pretty hard, and they are getting what we are giving them with hand feeding.”