A veteran Durham Ox farmer is predicting flooding would cause massive crop losses in the Loddon region, right up to Kerang.
Laurie Maxted said he knew of at least 10 properties in the area, mainly run by young farmers, which were being hard hit by flooding from the Loddon River.
“From Powlett Plains, right through to Canary Island and Kerang, there is a lot of hardship going to happen,” Mr Maxted said.
“We don’t need any more rain – we are witnessing the best season we could have had for years; if you could have dreamed about seasons, you would have had it hand-made.”
Mr Maxted said some farms were facing losses of hundreds of hectares of crops.
“The harvest is probably gone, I don’t know what the answer is, it’s either feast or famine.
“They were looking at, potentially, a harvest of a tonne and a half, at $150-200 a tonne, so you are looking close to a million dollars. While not everyone is as large as that, a lot of people are going to be hit terribly hard.
“We have a group of young farmers between the Loddon and Serpentine Creek who have invested heavily in agriculture, they are leasing country and cropping it and doing a terrific job.
“It’s what our district needed and now they are on their knees, just wondering what to do.
“They needed a good year or two, we looked like having it, then the heavens have opened up and made it very difficult here.”
Mr Maxted said he was concerned there was more water coming down the Loddon River.
“A lot of people thought we would get by with one flood, but we are going to be inundated with 60,000 megalitres a day, coming over from Laanecoorie.”
He praised Goulburn-Murray Water for keeping residents informed of what was happening with the floodwaters.
And fellow mixed farmer, Chris Harrison, also of Durham Ox, said the floods had the potential to be worse than 2011.
“It’s gone from one of the driest years on record, to one of the wettest springs,” Mr Harrison said.
As his property was on a tributary of the Loddon River, he said he had lost oat and clover grazing crops, to the first flood.
But it was younger farmers, who were trying to get a start in the Loddon area, who were hardest hit.
“It’s quite devastating, there’s a lot of young farmers coming in and they had the best crops we’d ever seen – all of a sudden it’s taken away from them, and they are not that far from harvest.”
Boort cropper Tyler Nelson, has dry land and irrigation, wheat, barley, canola, oaten and vetch hay.
“It's difficult coming to terms with crop losses and potential further crop losses from water logging and flooding after years of dry springs,” Mr Nelson said.
“The decisions that have to be made and the facts that have to be faced are all the harder after a couple of tough production years.
“We thought we would be out cutting our promising looking hay crops this time of year and preparing for a long awaited solid grain harvest.
“Instead, we are draining water off paddocks and topping up flood banks. “
He said he was trying to focus on positives and looking forward to the country drying up, so he could get some crops off.
