Livestock operators in the Yarrawonga area are looking to the skies for follow up rain, after a drier than average winter.
But croppers and irrigators said they were pleased with the way the season had been set up.
Yarrawonga-Mulwala prime lamb producer Peter Bailey, Aramat, said two words described the winter: “frost and sunny.
“The crops look great but an ideal cropping year is usually when the graziers are looking for rain,” Mr Bailey said. “Through a lot of Victoria, there is more crop lost to water logging, than from dry conditions.”
Mr Bailey runs a flock of primarily Merino/Border Leicester ewes on a sub clover base, oversown with lucerne.
The crops look great but an ideal cropping year is usually when the graziers are looking for rain.
- Peter Bailey, Aramat, Mulwala
He said his property, just on the edge of Mulwala, had received only one 25-millimetre fall of rain, this year, in mid August.
“At the end of August going into September we would like to see some water, laying around the table drains.”
Falls were well below average, with just slightly more than half of last year’s totals. “Around Easter time we had a few showers, with the best rainfall of 16mm on Anzac Day. We were living on showers, two mms to six mms, which was probably quite ideal through the winter.
“But we would love an inch now, in September and October we can take almost any amount.”
But for croppers, it’s been an ideal start to the season.
Newfield farming, Rennie’s, Adam Davis runs sheep and grows canola, wheat, barley and triticale on 1820 hectares, over six properties, with his parents Geoff and Jan.
“Sowing was a tough one for us this year, we started dry, went into moisture for about two weeks, then it came dry in the back end,” Mr Davis said. “We had four millimetres in the whole of June and things just sat still, nothing happened, so we are probably a bit behind where we were last year, timing wise. Then the rain came, and it was fantastic – we got it when we needed it.”
“The moisture probes are telling us we are around the 80-90 percent full rate, so one or two rains will get us home now – it’s a good situation to be in for us.”
For northern Victorian irrigators, steady falls have meant they still haven’t had to start watering.
