‘We heard one or two bangs on the roof and then golf ball size hail came down for 20 minutes’

Murtoa, Minyip and Horsham farmers have been hit by a costly hail storm. See what farmers are saying about damage so far.

Farmers in the Wimmera are assessing the damage of a hail storm that swept through the region on Wednesday night.

Hail stones hit large areas of the crop from Murtoa to Horsham, and growers believe the losses will be significant.

Hail storm damage to crops near Horsham has been heartbreaking for some growers who were near to harvest.

Nutrien agronomist Simon Severin was surveying crops on Thursday morning and said the hail damage was isolated but significant where it happened.

“I have a client at Murtoa who was affected and then further south another one, and nothing in between,” Mr Severin said.

His own farm was one of those that did suffer, and his barley crop which was due for harvest in about five to six weeks would now be made into hay.

“We were only banking on about a third of normal yields due to the low rainfall and now the hail storm has come and knocked the heads off the barley so it will be made into hay,” Mr Severin said.

Hail stones which caused damage to crops near Horsham.

“The storm started off pretty mild and we heard one or two bangs on the roof and then golf ball size hail came down for 20 minutes.

“About 80 per cent of our back lawn was covered so if it was a crop under that, it’s clearly been damaged.”

Mr Severin said it was a disappointing end to a tough season, where they had missed frost damage but were affected by the storms on Wednesday.

“We spent all year worrying about rain and got crops this far and now we get hail damage,” he said.

“Many crops are insured but it is disappointing.”

Hail at Tuckerang. Picture: Douglas Wunsch

Murtoa farmer Leo Delahunty said his sons were assessing crops for damage on Thursday and it was difficult to say what the losses would be at this stage.

“It has gone through in a strip and it looks like that strip is fairly extensive,” he said.

“In terms of damage to our own place, we won’t know just yet, but it looks like it is an expensive storm for farmers,” he said.

The Delahunty family grows wheat, barley, canola and lentils.

Hail storm damage to crops near Horsham.

Hail stones which caused damage to crops near Horsham.

Geoff Rethus at Horsham said he was fortunate because the storm was patchy and it had mostly gone around his crops.

However, he was aware of damage to beans and canola in nearby neighbouring paddocks.

“Some areas are okay, others were hit hard,” he said.

Ryan Milgate of Minyip said he had put machinery and vehicles away in sheds before the storm hit, but fortunately, the main extent of the hail went south of his property.

“It just missed us,” he said.