A RECENT spate of rain and cooler temperatures had been very welcome leading up to harvest, according to Annuello farmer Peter Aikman.
Mr Aikman, who grows wheat, barley, vetch and lupins, said his farm had received about 180mm this year.
“A dry summer and autumn, above-average rainfall in winter, and a good start to spring, should result in reasonable crop yields,” he said.
“It’s about taking the whole season into account – recent rainfall around 14mm to 17mm will help crops finish off nicely.”
Mr Aikman said the barley was only three to four weeks away from harvest.
“Even the cooler weather is much better than having days in their thirties during flowering and grain fill,” he said.
As a dryland farmer, Mr Aikman’s best crops this season have been those sown on paddocks with residual moisture from the 2020 season, such as hay and brown manure paddocks.
Even last year’s barley stubbles had additional moisture in the profile, he said, in a year when very little summer and autumn rain was recorded.
“An additional 30mm of stored moisture has made a big difference,” he said.
Although Woomelang crop farmer Chris Kelly was not as lucky in his notoriously dry patch, he still called the recent showers a “godsend”.
“This time of year can be so unfair to Mallee farmers,” Mr Kelly said.
“It seemed to go around us here on the Sea Lake Road, with 12mm all up, but 10km south of Woomelang we measured 25mm.
“So I went to our land at Watchupga, where we have a block with half field peas and the other half barley, and there was 19mm in the gauge.”
Those measurements were topped up by a weekend of rain that has brought hope to farmers across the region.
According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, Australia’s wheat and barley production will not meet the record highs of the 2020-21 season, but these crops were in a strong position at the end of winter and yield prospects were average to above average in most cropping regions.
