Victoria’s dry June has bought mixed fortunes to the state’s farmers.
Many Victorian grain growers are desperate for more rain but farmers in the state’s south-west generally seem to be enjoying a good season.
Pete Fort, Byaduk North, said the well-below average rainfall in June at the prime lamb farm he manages had been a blessing.
He said it had allowed things to dry out, after a very wet April and May.
He said pastures had continued to grow strongly throughout June and they were lucky enough to now have a feed wedge. Mr Fort said when they recently scanned the ewes, due to lamb from late August, he was impressed by their body condition thanks to the abundant feed. He said they’d separated ewes scanned with single and multiple fetuses, to ensure those with one lamb did not get too fat.
While Mr Fort said frosts had hit the farm for four or five consecutive days in the past week, it had slowed pastures’ growth but not likely damaged it.
At Elmdon farm at Wingeel, Mark Richmond has also had a “dream run” in term of the season – with a really good autumn backing up last year's “huge spring”.
As a result, the family’s 1400 Merino ewes are in good condition. About half of the flock have come through recently lambed and all but a handful had their lambs before the past week’s cold snap. Their spring lambing mobs scanned well.
Mr Richmond said while they had a full soil moisture profile, seasonal conditions were starting to feel drier.
John Delahunty, who grows wheat, barley, canola, and lentils, with his father Leo, uncle Andy, and brother Chris at Murtoa, and said the great start to the season helped them through what had been a very dry June.
"June was really dry, we only had seven millimetres for the whole month, whereas usually, we average about 45mm for the month," Mr Delahunty said. "We had a great start through the cropping period of April and May, and that really helped with the soil conditions."
He said they have started to see more rain this week.
"We've had 10mm since Monday, which was ideal because things had just started to dry out on top a bit.”
Billy Sexton said they had also seen their driest ever June at Terrappee.
"It's been very dry the last couple of weeks, but we got everything in early enough, so everything was up and about nice and early," Mr Sexton said. "We haven't been as desperate for rain as some people, but we definitely wouldn't say no to more."
