THE rain appears to have stopped – for now. So has the harvest.
Some growers have already lost a week or more, others are just a few days behind schedule.
The situation is not good, for virtually anyone, but at the same time most seem to agree things could be a lot worse.
Because while the headers may not be moving, livestock prices in saleyards are – and with all the rain, prices moving up.
Just ask Leonard Vallance, who farms midway between Ouyen and Sea Lake, and who copped more than 60mm in two bursts in the past week.
Mr Vallance said their harvest program was stopped dead in its tracks, an outcome he described as “disappointing, because this was the first clean crop we had stripped in years”.
He said the rain had taken a “bit of the shine” off the season as they were barely halfway through the harvest.
“We haven’t touched the header since Monday,” he said.
“We had been ready to go when the moisture started coming down in the morning, but when we checked after lunch it was going up again and that was it.
“Mind you, last year we hadn’t even started harvest by December 1, there had been so much rain in that November.
“No question the rain will give us some issues, but we have also held over 100 steers this year and I reckon their value has more than doubled this week alone.”
Mr Vallance said they had finished their barley but still had about 4500 acres of wheat and another almost 4000 acres of lupins, and he was hoping they could start on those by Sunday.
He said that despite the rain, the crops were still standing and the good winds of the past few days would speed up their drying. However, on some farms heavy barley crops might end up lodged.
“This is our third wet year in a row, but up until this latest rainfall I would say this is just about the best season I have seen in my 50 years on the farm,” he said.
“The frosts had been light, we didn’t have any wind damage, there was a mild September and October, it hasn’t been too hot and the rain – except for this – pretty well fell exactly when we needed it.”
Closer to Ouyen, Ian Hastings said he was also about halfway through harvest and, from what he had heard, felt most Mallee growers would be in a similar position.
With mostly wheat, barley and lupins, he and his family were almost into the barley when the rains came.
He received about 50mm in the two falls and estimated in the stretch between Ouyen and Manangatang people got between 40mm and 70mm in the same timeframe.
On Thursday he was feeling encouraged as the “wind has been really good”, accelerating the drying across his paddocks.
“At this point there has been no serious damage beyond us now looking at a much later finish,” Mr Hastings said.
“We haven’t heard any serious damage reports and we have all our fingers crossed because the next few days will probably tell the story on whether there will be any downgrades.
“Certainly haven’t heard of anything in that department and weather notwithstanding, maybe we will get a restart on Saturday or Sunday – depending on the wind and sunshine.
“One thing I can say with about doubt is whenever we all get back into our paddocks and get the machinery moving, there will be a lot more energy being put into getting the job done faster just in case.”
Falls in the north-west
• Swan Hill, with 85.4mm received in the 24 hours to 9am Wednesday, had Victoria’s highest one-day total, although Ultima totalled 90.2mm across a longer period in the past week.
• Mildura got 15.8mm in the 24 hours to last Saturday and a further 17.2mm on Wednesday for a monthly total of 53.8mm – more than double the November average of 26.6mm.
• Walpeup recorded 46.4mm and Ouyen’s official total was 31.6mm.
• Swan Hill’s 85.4mm was its second-highest one-day total since the aerodrome weather site opened in 1996.
