THE rain might have started falling – just not in northwest Victoria and large slabs of the Mallee.
While Swan Hill, Woorinen and Ultima have received around 17mm this month – against a monthly average of 25.7mm, with just 4.2mm in May there is a long way to go.
VFF grains president Ryan Milgate, who farms near Donald, said his assessment is the rain which fell heavily across the south of the state in the past week will get to the Wimmera and perhaps the southern Mallee.
But added the Mallee proper will be looking for a lot more.
“While I think a lot of crops will germinate off the back of this, there are isolated pockets which missed out on the rain, and there were no big falls into the Mallee,” Mr Milgate said.
“At best, I would say this rain has got us to the start line, but we will need three or four ties this lot and we will need it sooner rather than later as the season is starting to get away from us now.”
When the rain fell at the weekend Hamilton got 46.2mm (June average total is 66mm) but in May it only had 20mm against an average 54.2mm.
Mortlake got a whopping 85mm (June average 55.7mm) but is playing catch up after just 13mm of a normal 57.2mm.
At the same areas such as Manangatang and Robinvale missed out completely.
Mr Milgate said he recalled in 2006 a late start in June still ended up as a strong season – but to achieve that you need everything after that to go in your favour.
And none of the rain which has fallen has made a dent in filling dams for stock water.
“Our sheep country near Hall’s Gap has also been seriously cold, so cold the other morning – at around -4.5C – we couldn’t get the tractor going to feed out grain,” Mr Milgate explained.
“There’s still no, pasture, although this rain might help there a bit, although the cold weather won’t help.
“Fortunately, we have our own grain stored so are depleting our stocks, and our hay supplies will go down to the wire, normally we would be selling that but not this year.”
At Manangatang, Chris Plant, who is an all-cropping enterprise, was in one of the lucky stretches and received around 11mm, but said most of her crops don’t look too bad and her early sown paddocks are all up and running.
She said she has benefited from the bigger fall some weeks ago but with little rain since then and the frosts things in her region, particularly in the heavier ground, have slowed down.
“We have been helped with fogs and heavy dew, and every little bit of that helps,” Ms Plant added.
“I would say we have better than 95 per cent germination now but anyone’s late sown crops will be a little slower getting out of the ground.
“April and May were pretty warm, which helped us a lot, but there will be a difference between those sown early and the rest, I would think at this stage – and our subsoil moisture from the summer has certainly given us a lot of help.”
