Heavy rain wipes ‘millions of dollars’ off crop values during critical harvest

A heavy downpour across southern Australia has coincided with the peak of the busy grain harvest season, throwing farmers’ plans into disarray.

Farmers recorded more than 100 millimetres in parts of western Victoria and South Australia, with much of that falling in a matter of minutes.

The downpour has coincided with a busy grain harvest.

Despite farmers’ best efforts to get as much as possible done before the rain, many still had weeks of work ahead of them when it hit.

They are facing lengthy delays as they wait for crops to dry out, and they’ll be hit with yield and quality downgrades when they do eventually get rolling again.

Ag consultant Marty Colbert was on the road in Victoria when the rain hit on Friday.

“I’ve never driven in rain that heavy – I pulled over and it was like being submerged, I couldn’t see a thing,” he said.

“We’d already had 25 mills earlier on and then we got 50 mills in half an hour and the paddocks became sheets of water.”

Grain growers battled horrendous harvest conditions with the big wet last year, but to this point had been experiencing ideal conditions, with very little rain since harvest began.

“We had been rolling along pretty well, it was a dream actually, but that’s changed in an afternoon,” Mr Colbert said.

Difficult harvest ahead

He said valuable lentil crops – worth about $900 a tonne – had been particularly hard hit and in many cases had been pummelled into the ground.

“The majority of the crop is now in the ground and what is left will be very hard to scrape up, which will be very frustrating,” he said.

“With the canola that has been windrowed, under those windrows there will be quite a humid environment and it’s happened before that fungus will get going on the canola seed.”

In wheat crops, Mr Colbert said rain-drenched grain could have lost weight and value.

He also said there could also be quality downgrades if seeds started to sprout.

“We lose in many ways — we lose actual physical weight and then have quality downgrades, that is what we’re staring at,” he said.

“That could mean a loss of $75 per tonne of wheat, which in the Nhill-Lillimur area alone would be a loss of $20 million, which is a massive blow to the local economy.

“And it will be a drawn-out harvest now — we were all going to be finished harvest well before Christmas, but now we’ll be going on into the new year.”

But Mr Colbert said farmers were looking for the positives – principally preserving sub-soil moisture for next year’s crops.

“As we’ve learned, a moisture profile is money in the bank, so we’ve started building that bank already,” he said.

Lentil prices impacted

Ag consultant Chris Heinjus from Pinion Advisory said lentil prices had come down in South Australia as a result of the weather event.

“Particularly given weather concerns in Victoria – that weather and what went through the South East last Friday that’s concerning for any crops that are actually out in the paddock still,” he said.

He said there was still “a fair bit” of harvest to happen in those areas.

“We are concerned about the quality of lentils, beans and also standing cereals,” he said.

“We haven’t seen any downgrading yet as a result of last week’s weather event, but this one that we are experiencing with the rain and hail and certainly a concern in those later harvesting areas.”

Crop farmers will be in for a nervous few weeks, with the extent of the damage unclear until harvest finishes.

But it is not just grain and lentils impacted.

Early season cherries lost

Cherry Growers of Australia acting president and Adelaide Hills cherry grower, Nick Noske, said many of the orchards in South Australia had been impacted.

Hardest hit were farmers who grew early harvesting varieties, which would have been ready to pick in the next week.

“It’s sort of damaged some blocks to the point where they’re not worthwhile commercially harvesting,” Mr Noske said.

He said the impact had so far been limited to the start of the season with cherries that were mostly set to be exported.

“Growers have a constant stream of varieties maturing … it just puts a bit of a gap in their production schedule,” Mr Noske said.

“It is really a cash flow hit to growers, I don’t think it is going to affect consumers too much.”

While not a significant impact yet, if the wild weather was to continue it could mean shortages.

“That is part and parcel of cherry growing, we usually get one rain event over the course of a season which does a bit of damage,” Mr Noske said.

“Fingers crossed we get a good run into Christmas.”

Downy mildew concerns

Vineyards across the two states will also be fighting diseases worsened by the wet weather.

South Australian viticulturalist Sarah Bird said it would take a few weeks to understand the extent the weather event has had on the spread of downy mildew.

“We just have to be vigilant for the next few weeks,” Ms Bird said.

The weather has come at a tough time for the industry, with many growers attempting to save costs while grapes are out of contract.

“A lot of growers are cutting back a little bit on their spray programs trying to save a bit of money,” Ms Bird said.

“So rather than putting on protectant sprays, some people are looking at reactive sprays if they do find an issue.”

She said the disease was already active in some vineyards across the state, with the weather exacerbating the problem.

“There is a big spore base in the vineyards … so this season we are finding it is not taking much for that downy [mildew] to take off again,” Ms Bird said. 

“Anyone who has had a lot of rain and humidity will have problems.”

Drowned potatoes

Potato farmers have also experienced losses from the weather.

South East farmer Terry Buckley said at least $100,000 of his crop had been drowned after having 70 millimetres of rain at his property.

“It is only one or two per cent, but it is still significant … we grow 25,000 tonnes of spuds,” he said.

The damage was mostly limited to potato farms which had clay soils, so Mr Buckley believed another potato shortage was not yet on the cards.

“It is not posing a serious risk at this time,” he said.

Mr Buckley said he thought the wet weather event could be tied to climate change.

He said he planned to change his farm’s practices to better prepare for future wild weather.

“What we have had is something we may need to expect more often,” he said.