Gippsland gets best of falls, but more to come

But there’s good news from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) for the rest of the state, with a “substantial front” predicted from later this week (Thursday).

The bureau’s duty forecaster Richard Russell said the latest rainfall event started in Central Queensland, with an upper level trough that brought substantial relief to that state. “As it moved south, the low really started to deepen,” Mr Russell said. Once combined with a cloud band, on the eastern flank, he said heavy rain was inevitable. “June is the most common month to see east coast lows - there are probably a couple a year, and they are pretty spectacular rain producers, especially when they tuck into the mountains,” Mr Russell said.

While the west only enjoyed “drizzly, patchy rain,” falls varied across Gippsland, from 556mm at Towamba to 70mm at Dargo and a very welcome 75mm at Stony Creek in South Gippsland. For dairyfarmers, it has meant a welcome return to the basics of growing grass.

“This is the best rain we’ve had since 2014. Everyone should be happy,” said Stony Creek dairy farmer Daryl Sinclair. “This’ll help us grow grass and grow a lot of it.” With the soil profile filled, he expected a good harvest of silage and hay in spring. It was a similar story for Cowwarr dairy farmer Mal Stewart, after 34mm fell this week. He has been relying on fodder for his milking herd since November last year.

“The grass is growing well. The herd is almost fully dry now and this will set us up beautifully for calving in two weeks,” he said. South Gippsland dairy farmer Marian Macdonald said 75mm had fallen, in two days since Sunday night. “It’s been the first fall were we have seen water going into the dam, that’s really big for us,” Ms Macdonald said. “What I am really pleased about is that it will replenish the sub-soil moisture; one of the factors which really killed us last season was that it was so dry, all the way down the profile.

“If we can have rain now, it’s like money in the bank. When it does stop raining growth can continue on for a little while.”

Dargo cattle breeders John and Rita McMahon had about 70mm of rain. “It’s soaked into the ground well and on the super’ed country we’ll get some green pick. It’s set us up well and if we get rain in August, we’ll have a good spring,” Mr McMahon said. At Bairnsdale, cereal grower Toby Caithness was using the wet season to catch up on machinery maintenance but was keen to get back on his country, to spray for ryegrass. “I don’t think it’ll worry the crops too much, the soil profile is full and the country is draining well; but because it’s been cultivated it’s pretty soft and we can’t get onto it to spray,” he said. 

At Towamba, cattle breeder Alex Pota was busy recovering from 556mm rainfall. “We’ve got a lot of fences to fix and a lot of erosion,” he said.

In the south-west, falls were lighter, with only three to eight millimetres recorded in the dairying country along the coast and inland – but with one area recieving 35mm for the month. Fleyas Holsteins Jessa Fleming, Portland, said it had been dry and cold, inhibiting pasture growth, but another 15mm had fallen by the middle of the week. South of Ballarat, lighter falls were welcomed, after an extremely dry season.

Katherine Bain, from St Enoch’s, Stockyard Hill, said it had been “really dry,” resulting in high feeding costs.

“We are starting to get some decent rain, it’s not been a great season, but this year it is looking a bit better.”

SENTIMENT in the agricultural machinery segment is buoyant across Australia following good rains in most regions. With a generally strong start to winter crops following widespread rains across Australia, dealers are reporting positive signs. In western NSW, Warren-based Agco dealer Jack Ryan said the region had received half their annual rainfall in the past few weeks. “The feeling is more positive than it has been for a while and when it dries out a bit, and they get the rest of the crops in, it will be alright.” He said “the general consensus is good if we get a bit of sun now. We’ve got lots of quotes out there for spray rigs and fertiliser spreaders but everyone is waiting to see what happens.” 

Mid-north South Australian Case IH dealer Rob Dingle of Rocky River Ag said the region was “as good as I have ever seen it.” “We’ve had 50 - 60 mm in the past four weeks and it has set this whole year up.”

He said inquiry was good but “we tend to see harvester sales when they are sitting in them.”

WHILE inflows into the Upper Murray catchments were above the long-term average, for this time of year, there was only a modest response in the catchments. Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) River Murray operations director Neville Garland said he did not expect the east coast low to substantially add to inflows. “It’s important to note that rainfall and run-off so far this year - whilst promising - has not been enough to shift us out of drought operation,” Mr Garland said. “We will continue to store water until there is a significant increase in volumes in storage in Hume and Dartmouth Dams. These large storages typically take months, not days to fill. Even with the wet weather, as forecasts are indicating, we would expect it to be more likely to be spring before storages reach good levels.”