General News
25 October, 2024
Wimmera harvests a 'lottery'
Few farmers across the region will break even this year after enduring weather which one likened to playing "storm lotto".
Roger Smith, who farms at Pullut between Rainbow and Jeparit, said his good run had come to an end after 15 to 30 years.
"We'll end up with a poor year but will be thankful for what we do get," Mr Smith said.
"We went for about 10 weeks during a crucial time with just a few millimetres of rain and were lucky that rain in summer after last harvest has carried us.
"But we've had a fantastic run over the last 15 to 20 years, so we have to wear this. It's just the way it is."
Mr Smith said farmers who landed a few storms at the right time would be fortunate enough to see better yields, and that dealing with this year's weather was the equivalent of playing "storm lotto".
Mr Smith, about three weeks off the start of harvest, said lentils was a popular crop across the district this year but results were a "big unknown" because of the height of the crop and whether the header could pick up the grain.
"I keep doing the sums in my head about yields and what's needed to break even," he said.
"One thing in our favour with lentils is that the price is good at present because of poor yields in SA.
"If we can get a few bags an acre that will make a big difference."
Nhill consulting agronomist Marty Colbert said most Wimmera and Southern Mallee farmers would feel the adverse effects of this year's harvest for three or four years to come.
He estimated that few farmers across the region would come out "on top" this year.
Mr Colbert's brother Andrew, who farms south of Nhill, summed up the year with his comment that yields would be half of last year's.
But half of that half had been lost because of heavy frosts - and prices were poor.
Marty Colbert said last week's hail which fell in the Casterton area and then reformed in another cell, bursting over Wonwondah before moving through to Murtoa, also added to farmers' woes.
Mr Colbert estimated some farmers could lose as much as $1 million of their harvest income because of hail damage.
South Wonwondah farmer Russell Heard told ABC radio that he would lose 70 per cent of a canola crop after hail flattened it.
Mr Colbert said that most farms north of Kalkee and into the Southern Mallee were adversely affected by lack of rain at critical times, and had also succumbed to repeated frosts.
"It's as bad up there that I've seen in 40 years," he said. "And it's so costly to put in a crop now that it will take three or four years for some farmers to recover.
"Farmers aren't talking yields this year, it's a topic they don't want to touch.
"Most farmers will be done and dusted with their harvest by Christmas," he said.
"They'll be able to have Christmas Day off."
However, further south in the Western District, Hamilton-district farmers were looking at reasonable results.