Continual rain leads to 'fantastic' start to potato harvests in Victoria

Sam Cummaudo, Cummaudo Farms, Mirboo North, started his harvest program on Thursday after the commercial farm received plenty of rain in the lead-up to pulling crops out of the ground.

He said they received 74 millimetres of rain in the past week, which meant they were able to avoid irrigating their crop, which was "extremely rare".

Mr Cummaudo and his brother Tony manage 400 hectares of potatoes, about 15 hectares of onions, and 1000-head of beef cattle.

"From an irrigation point of view we haven't had to irrigate, and it's surprising that our paddocks are drying out quite well," he said.

"We've started harvesting [on Thursday], our potatoes, we thought they'd be quite dirty looking but they're coming out quite well."

He said they had cut hay before recent heavy rain, which looked "pretty ordinary", but otherwise they were happy with their start to the year.

Mr Cummaudo said they planted the potatoes in early August, 2023, before finishing in mid-December, and would harvest the crop until September.

He said they had received rain each week in the lead-up to Christmas, with some crops only needing watering once.

"We're choofing along quite well," he said.

"We lifted off our first lot of onions before Christmas.

"All the plantings are looking well and healthy."

Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture vice president Katherine Myers, Tourello, said all commercial growers were having a "fantastic season", after continual rain in the lead-up to Christmas.

"We had that really warm spring, it was cool, dry then warm, and most people have had fantastic germination, the crops look really healthy," she said.

"Some mild damage with the rain at Christmas and New Years but they've stood up really well."

Ms Myers and her family grow certified seed rather than commercial potatoes, meaning they plant later than commercial growers.

"We want small potatoes for seed but not large potatoes for processing, and we got caught with the wet," she said.

"We've been postponed, normally we plant the week before Christmas through to New Years and we're only about 40 per cent into our plantings now.

"If everything stays warm, our yield should fine."

She said she felt relieved growers were able to have a quiet season, after experiencing tougher seasons.

Joe Sgro, Foothills Organic, Colac, said they hadn't received heavy rain in the past week, but had about 78mm of rain two weeks ago.

He said it meant he was able to take a break over Christmas and New Year's celebrations, with minimal need for irrigation.

"I reckon it's been about 18 years since we've had a break like that," he said.

"We are watering now but we're planting now that's why, we're planting seedlings, we've had a pretty good year."

Mr Sgro said he believed other local potato growers were facing similar benefits after the rain.

He said they would be busy planting leeks and other crops until early March, and would begin harvesting potatoes towards the end of February.

"Usually we get [potatoes] in October, November and December and leave them for three or three and a half months," Mr Sgro said.

"We have some spuds we might pick in the next two weeks that we put in early for the fun of it, but usually we start digging around at the end of February.

"They look good, and the weather has been good to them, but you don't really know until you dig."