WHEAT and pulses and crops east of the Loddon Valley Highway, running from Bendigo to Kerang, have been the standouts in a tough year for Victorian croppers.
Most farmers north of the Dividing Range have now finished with the focus on the Western District, which is the in the unaccustomed position of yields being impacted on the downside due to dry conditions rather than a wet winter.
Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) grains group president Brett Hosking said wheat had generally been one of farmers’ best performers.
“Wheat has performed relatively well, according to most people you speak to it has done a little better than other crops.”
Conversely, he said canola had been the big disappointment.
“Farmers were disappointed with how far below visual assessments actual yields were,” Mr Hosking said.
“Along with the dry spring, a late frost in October also hurt a lot of canola more than expected.”
He said while much of the media focus had been on the travails of the south-western Mallee there had been some bright spots across the state.
“Growers in the north-east are very pleased, but even in the North Central it has not been too bad, for instance the Boort Co-op site has taken more grain this year than last year.”
An exception to the poor year in the western third of the state has been the Millewa in the far north-west, normally the most arid part of Victoria.
“Farmers there have reported a generally average year, which is good as they have had some tough ones of late,” Mr Hosking said.
In the south-west, Hamilton district farmer Brent Herrmann said harvest was switching focus from canola to cereals.
“The canola has been good at around 2-2.5 tonnes to the hectare, and we’re hopeful cereals will also be quite good.
“Anything sown on time has been good, but the later crops have struggled a bit due to the dry spring.”
He said even in his area, one of the wettest regularly cropped parts of the state, it had been a dry spring, and yields had been impacted due to moisture stress in normally reliable areas such as Cavendish.
Lachie Stevens, Lachstock Consulting, said the drier parts of the Western District, towards Geelong, had suffered quite extensively as a result of the dry spring.
“The bit of rain towards the end of November may help fill existing grain, but yields have been impacted by a terrible spring.”
Pulse Australia’s southern industry development manager Mary Raynes said a combination of high prices and legume crops yielding slightly above expectations had given growers a pleasant surprise.
“This is certainly a positive reflection on the achievements of the Pulse Breeding Australia researchers, with the commercialisation of several improved varieties in recent years,” she said.
“We have had poor years like this before and the result has been some growers dropping pulses from their rotations, but after the 2014 season we have every expectation that the area sown to pulses in 2015 will again increase across the southern growing regions of Australia.”