Storms brought mixed blessings for north-central Victoria

While the band of storms and showers brought problems for central Victorian cereal and oilseed growers – who have cut crops for hay – livestock and dairy producers welcomed the falls.

Invergordon hay contractor Luke Felmingham said many producers now faced tough decisions.

“It’s pretty much no help for anyone,” Mr Felmingham said. “It was perfect poor timing.”

“There are a few irrigated crops it might have some advantage for, but for cereal and canola crops it really was a few weeks too late. The drought-stressed cereal hay still had a bit more drying to go.”

Mr Felmingham said he was hearing stories about crops that had already been baled up and were now starting to “cook.”

The pressing issue would now be regrowth, with many farmers cutting early.

“Farmers will have to make the decision whether or not to set up to graze and buy stock to put on canola paddocks,” he said.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Keris Arndt said the showers and storms meant some areas of north-central Victoria, including Shepparton and Kyabram, received their highest daily rainfall totals for the year.

Among the falls were Tatura (29.2mm), Shepparton (22.4mm), Yarrawonga (15.4mm), Kyabram (27mm), Rochester(17.4mm), and Mangalore (23.4mm). 

“It was quite a line of storms, which extended all the way up to Queensland, through NSW and then moved slowly eastwards,” Mr Arndt said.

“We had a north-east trajectory bringing moist warm air down from Queensland and a low-pressure system to the south-west.

“That brought some unstable air and when they met, it produced a fair bit of storm activity.” 

Numurkah dairy farmer Steve Dalitz said a further 33mm, on top of 22mm last week, has saved him thousands of dollars in irrigation. 

“Last week, a cloud stopped over us and just sat there. You could see a mile south-west of us and there was no rain,” Mr Dalitz said. 

He said without the rain, he would have had to decide which parts of the farm he was going to water.

“It has probably saved me two waterings, if I had to buy at the market price at the moment, it would probably have cost me $40,000.”

Seymour sheep and cattle producer Brian Leahy said he estimated he’d received 36mm of rain over two days.

“We were probably drier than usual, coming into spring, so we will get good benefit out of this rain,” Mr Leahy said. 

“People in this area were trying to get rid of their lambs early, but it’s given them a bit of leeway. 

“I’ll finish my lambs off better now, I can hang onto them a bit longer.

“It makes you feel a bit better about the whole job,” Mr Leahy said.

Agriculture Victoria seasonal risk team leader Graeme Anderson said while the lack of rain in the western half of the state was disappointing, that region picked up handy falls last week.

The Wimmera saw falls of between 10-30mm, following a dry September.

“Of all the cropping areas it’s that west and southern Wimmera, and the south-west, which has the greatest potential,” Mr Anderson said.

“October is a key month for yield for those zones and we were hoping for a bit more rain, this week.”