Weather conditions dampen this years north-western harvest

While heavy rain in October and November brought issues with disease, it also filled up the soil moisture profile for this year's plantings.

Hail storms, right up until Christmas, also had a significant impact in some areas, but crops were largely insured.

Darren Mott said he cropped 3700 hectares, between Lascelles and Sea Lake, and suffered extensive hail damage in mid-November.

"We have probably had 70 per cent hail damage over the whole property - anywhere outside that hail zone seems to have had an exceptional year," he said.

He was insured for hail damage.

"We were on the verge of harvest, but running about three to four weeks later than normal," he said.

The hailstorm affected an area from Mildura, down to Charlton.

"You don't have to go very far and the yields have been exceptional - but I haven't stripped a paddock, which reached its full potential."

He said yields on the wheat, barley, lentils and lupins went from half a kilogram per hectare to under 2 tonnes/ha.

"We actually had our best year ever, in 2021, and this year would have surpassed it, quite easily," he said.

"I know of people who have had their best year ever."

He said fungicide applications had helped combat diseases, particularly in the lentils.

"Anyone who has done one spray, or didn't spray, has done it remarkably tough," he said.

The 600 millimetres of rain for the year, with 200mm in October and November, had set the area up for a good season.

Earlier this week, GrainCorp reported its Victorian sites had received 3.58 million tonnes for the season so far, with strong receival activity across all regions.

Between January 3-9, sites had received 411,720 tonnes.

A spokeswoman said a significant grain outload program continued across the GrainCorp network to create capacity for more receivals, with 300,000 tonnes of grain outloaded last week.

Read more: Rain has 'shaved' margins for many Mallee and Wimmera crop producers

Danny Conlan, Woomelang, was also hit by hail, in late-December.

"The crops were mature, we were about to commence harvest and the lentils were maturing, at the time," Mr Conlan said.

"It knocked the yields down from 50-100 per cent - we were expecting an exceptional yield."

Producers reported crops were hit by fusarium head blight and stripe rust.

Chris Hunt, Merrinee, said he had an "exceptional year" for barley, field peas and wheat.

"It was above average," Mr Hunt said.

"But there is a big gap between the haves and have-nots in the district."

He said yield appeared to be related to management decisions.

"It was probably as simple as fungicide, whether you chose to spray for rust, or not - beyond that it's coming down to decisions on nitrogen, fallow management and rotations," he said.

"You could be talking paddocks in the district with gross income in wheat in that $1200-1300/hectare bracket, easy enough, then you might have others in the district that had $200-300 and that is not just a little gap," he said.

He said input costs were also a significant factor.

"We had spent as much to get to where we were that I wanted all I could get [from the harvest]," he said.

"When you are throwing out a couple of hundred tonnes of urea, spending $10,000 on fungicide is a small amount."

But he said that was complicated by massive costs, in all areas.

"It didn't matter what you were doing, costs were blowing out - machinery, repair and maintenance, chemicals, costs are massive at the moment."

He said croppers had to deal with more than one disease issue - 'you were dealing with a spectrum."

"We treated field peas in a widespread fashion with a fungicide, for the first time," he said.

"The payoffs were massive".

He said he believed the rain and a lack of sunshine contributed to the increase in crop diseases.

"In horticulture, that's been an issue, there's been no heat to cook the disease out," he said.

Lubeck farmer, Graeme Maher, said most growers were happy with the season.

"I haven't heard anyone say it was a good year but I haven't heard anyone say 'jeez, it will wreck me," he said.

"Most people in our area would be happy, other than with legumes, both beans and lentils.

"Yields were alright, quality was surprisingly good," he said.

He said his cereals yielded between 2.8 and 4.5 tonnes per hectare, with canola returning 1.8-2.5 t/ha.

"Every paddock had areas that were washed out.

"But in overall end results, we were happy."

"The complications were wheel marks and getting bogged - I had a paddock of barley we finished last week, I couldn't harvest it, because I literally couldn't get machinery in."

Record rainfall in October and November caused issues with fungus, waterlogging and flooding.

"The crops suffered, the stock suffered everything suffered - and you couldn't do anything," he said.

The upside was that dams were now full and farmers were able to get involved in recreational activities, like swimming, boating and fishing.

"There's something pleasing about seeing that, instead of seeing all these empty holes," he said.

"It's good for mental health."

At Cohuna, dairy farmer Jodie Hay, had a different problem, with a mini-tornado hitting the property early in the New Year.

The 15-minute weather event, on January 2, smashed windows and a skylight, knocked down trees and affected wheat and corn.

Ms Hay said they were expecting six tonnes to the hectare for their wheat, but harvested less than two on the 90 hectares that had been planted.

Insurance would not cover what it would cost to resow the corn.

"It was really isolated, it brewed up over Pyramid Hill but the damage was from Box Bridge and Leitchville, right through to the Island road, in a three kilometre width," she said.

"It smashed the vinyl panelling on houses, it looked like someone had taken to the side of the house with a golf club."

The tornado struck around 7pm, she said.

"The cows stampeded through fences, we were worried they would end up on the highway, but thankfully they stayed on the farm," she said.

"It lasted about 15 minutes and you couldn't see, you couldn't hear."