The rain is still falling – by 8am on Wednesday Mildura had received 16mm – and according to Elders Mildura senior agronomist Jack Daniel, the news just keeps getting better for broadacre producers.
Mr Daniel said early reports from the Mallee show it was receiving even more, while across the river, from Wentworth to Pooncarie, it’s a similar story.
He said he could only describe the coming harvest as “exceptional”.
It’s so exceptional the biggest challenge facing growers will be where to put all the grain as it comes off the paddocks.
“Historically, year on year, the northern Mallee will do about 1.5 tonnes per hectare with wheat; this year we are looking at 2.5-3t/ha,” Mr Daniel said.
“As for the legumes, well they’re going to be really big – they are just looking for a bit of warm weather, which we may get next week, for the chick peas.
“This is one of those almost textbook classic seasons. The field peas, the chickpeas, have had very good conditions for growth, and the long flowering period has further boosted yield.”
Mr Daniel said the biggest challenge facing graingrowers will be getting the crop off fast enough – and finding somewhere to put it as they do.
He says GrainCorp and Viterra are already planning where to boost storage, as are farmers, looking at on-farm silos and grain bags.
The only unknown at this stage is the weather that has helped set up the bumper season.
“The weather is out of our control, and it is going to be the same issue everywhere and if the rain does keep coming there could be problems getting machinery into paddocks,” Mr Daniel added.
“We have also had a lot more stripe rust pressure, and a lot earlier, because of the rain and that will be a factor, too,” he says.
The one sector where things have not gone so well is hay – last week vetch was only commanding between $315 at Swan Hill and $375 a tonne at Sale.
Mr Daniel says while the prices are not flash, oaten and vetch hay is still an important part of property rotations.
He says the northern Mallee is an early area for hay, and while it often has a lower yield per hectare, it is a much higher quality product.
“The spectre of 2010 is there in the back of people’s minds right now, that was our last really wet year so a lot of people have decided to spray their paddocks off and look to next year,” Mr Daniel said.
“There were a lot of downgrades in 2010, and people haven’t forgotten that.”
“Vetch declines significantly if it gets too wet, and some hay that has been cut has now had two or three weeks of rain on it.
“And if you do look at the country from Pooncarie, and all the way round to Broken Hill, there is a power of feed out there anyway, which will also limit domestic demand.”
