LIKE many other graingrowers, Victorian Farmers Federation grains council president and Millewa broadacre cropper Craig Henderson admits this harvest could have been a lot worse.
But it certainly could have been a lot better.
And he said looking across North West Victoria – and the state – it had been a “seriously mixed bag” of results.
“If you got the showers in May, you have probably finished above average, if you didn’t, then you’re probably below,” Mr Henderson said.
“Right now prices are a little ordinary as well.
“On our land in the Millewa, we probably finished up a little below where we expected we would be earlier in the year.
“We had up to 130 millimetres during harvest, if it had fallen two months earlier we would have been looking at a bumper outcome.
“But that’s half our annual rainfall in just a very narrow window, the lentils we got off early enough did well but after that they were shot and ended up feed quality.”
The Hendersons farm, which takes up several thousand hectares at Millewa, focused on hay, pulses and cereals, and most people in their part of the North West have just about finished for the year – the same for the northern Wimmera.
Finished harvesting, that is.
But with all the rain, creating some amazing subsoil moisture, as soon as the headers have started coming off, the spray rigs are being wheeled out to clean up increasingly green paddocks.
To the east of the Mallee some growers were hit even harder by the unseasonal downpours.
Areas around places such as Quambatook copped almost 12 months rain in a few weeks across October and November.
In those zones a lot of wheat which had Australian standard white written all over it a couple of months ago has very quickly been downgraded to feed quality, costing farmers $20 a tonne or more in discounts.
Brett Hosking, who grows mostly cereals there, said the hay market was also a bit all over the shop at the moment, but he was expecting it might improve.
“With the early frosts we had, a lot of buyers assumed the damage would be even worse and that people would be cutting a lot of hay, which would keep prices down,” he said.
“But with the southwest of the state in a real feed deficit, and maybe not as much hay around as was first thought, I am hoping those prices will bounce back.
“I guess you could say all this late rain has ruined a near drought, we just wish it had held off a little bit longer.”
Mr Henderson said one of the most obvious indicators of the downgraded harvest was the number of big trucks on regional road networks – there weren’t as many as expected.
He saw that as a sure sign many were storing lower-grade grain on-farm for the moment.
“But now things are almost finished I suspect many people are realising they will be getting a bit more than they might have thought,” Mr Henderson said.
“Plus we all seem to have a lot of unexpected subsoil moisture, which if we look after it properly will be a big help getting us through to next spring.
“So summing up 2024, I guess you could say, we got enough to wash our faces and do it all again next year.”
