Decent rain across large parts of western, central and north east Victoria in the past week have been welcomed by farmers, while also providing a boon for drought stricken farmers north of the Murray River.
Bureau of Meteorology figures for the past week show many areas in a strip from the South Australian border through to Victoria’s north-east have received anywhere from 15 millimeters to more than 50mm.
Many areas of the state received 10-20mm of rain on Tuesday night to add to those weekly totals with the north east getting the highest totals.
Australian Livestock and Property Association chief executive officer, Andy Madigan, said it was a welcome quench for many farmers.
He said Victoria had become the destination for large numbers of stock from drought affected farms in NSW and Queensland.
“We’re fortunate that Victoria has the capacity to take these numbers of stock,” he said.
“Coming into spring, the rain should see growth take off.”
In the Ballarat region livestock producers are still in the grips of winter.
Landmark Livestock Manager, Xavier Shanahan, Ballarat, said livestock trading was quiet as producers waited to “come out the other side of winter”.
The region had measured about 66mm of rain in the past fortnight.
“The rain hasn’t shown anything in defining prices, but it has given us the confidence that we will have a season,” he said.
“Two of three weeks ago we were thinking it (the rain) needed to keep coming a bit.
“Some stock are getting bought now bu most will want to see a bit of sun before buying too much.”
Mr Shanahan said water was starting to run and the conditions were ideal for August. He said it was expected old lamb numbers would start to cut back sharply from now on.
New season lambs were not expected until late September early October for small numbers.
Mr Shanahan said if the season allowed, producers would hold lambs to gain weight.
Elders livestock agent, Jonathon Sutherland, Bendigo, said the region received 15-20mm on Tuesday night, Boort 5-10mm and Kilmore 18mm. He said the rain would slow the influx of local lambs being sold early.
“We expect more lambs from north of the river to be sent because of the dry there,” he said.
“The season had been good in the Kilmore region with regular falls of 5-15mm, but the season was about three weeks advanced of normal, he said. “We could handle any amount of rain from now on though.”
