Grain growers are applying for multi-million dollar indemnity insurance claims for crops damaged by three supercells that ravaged the state last week.
Hail the size of golf balls fell from the skies when the storm ripped through Victoria on Thursday, causing significant damage to crops in the Wimmera and Mallee.
Agribusiness Consulting Group senior assessing consultant Marty Colbert said there were 12 storm assessors currently working on about 350 claims across eastern Australia.
Mr Colbert was one of three assessors working on several dozen claims between the South Australian and Victorian Mallee and Wimmera region, which was the area greatest impacted by the storms.
"Some of the claims could be upwards of $500,000, and there are some multi-million dollar claims in NSW," he said.
"There are other farmers that were on the edge of the cell and they've got damage but it won't make the 5 per cent excess.
"I stood in a crop that had zero damage, and then 100 metres away had [yield loss] of 30pc; the intensity and levels of impact can be quite dramatic from the edge of the cell to the middle.
"One of the cells ripped through and damaged about 12,000 hectares of crops from Loxton, SA, to Harrow in the western district, to St Arnaud, and Red Cliff near Mildura.
"The cell was heavy and these crops were mature.
"There was large marble-sized hail."
He estimated some crops in the impacted regions would have yield losses as high as 30pc for legumes, 40pc for barley and 30pc for wheat.
"The other [storm] cell we are dealing with in the Wimmera occurred on the same day and spread 15 kilometres either side of Broughton, Nhill and Harrow," he said.
"That financially will have bigger losses with potentially more tonnes per hectare and a lot of canola impacted."
Another cell ripped through the east of St Arnaud and was expected to have crop damage claims.
The show is not over yet.
- Marty Colbert, Agribusiness Consulting Group
With more storms forecast later this week, he said "the show is not over yet".
"Some experienced farmers find placing a figure to how much impact there has been a challenge," he said.
"Sometimes they don't want to know.
"It's good advice for them to rate it a light mild or severe and let the assessor apply a consistent method to determine the impact as a paddock average.
"About 50pc of farmers currently have their crops insured.
"The high commodity prices have edged more people on board."