Crazy grain season, but fruit survives downpour

Hunters Rural commodity trader Stewart Coombes said farmers were on the tail end of a quiet hay season and wheat crops were now too dry to be baled, despite earlier expectations of more grain crops being converted to hay.

“What I think happened is that a few people said there was a bit of frost and were planning to bale, but then looked at it maturing and so decided to strip it instead,” Mr Coombes said.

“I am seeing on the Numurkah-Katamatite Rd a lot of rolls that had just been baled before the rain came because the grower saw it coming.

“Even though they say there’s a lot of hay out there, we are not seeing a lot of volume; so hay is right now expensive, and it’s certainly going to be an interesting autumn.”

Most horticulturalists were not affected by the rain with winds not strong enough to damage young fruit.

MJ Hall & Sons orchard manager Sam Boyce said the rain had caused no issues, with apples and pears being in the early stages of fruiting.

“My crops are so far away that I only have a small chance of getting cracking on my plums,” Mr Boyce said.

“I do feel for the cherry growers — they would not be enjoying this rain.

“And just with the shortage of staff at this time of year and the rules of an average of 38 hours per week for those staff, means that rain causes days off, which puts us behind in our fruit thinning.”

Fruit Growers Victoria industry development officer Michael Crisera said the post-rain conditions had been ‘favourable’ for cherries.

“That results in less cracking,” Mr Crisera said.

“Some varieties are worse than others.

“Another concern after rain is apricot and peach staining.”

A spokesperson for Koala Cherries said the rain had not done any damage by Thursday, November 28 and their Cobram crops were already picked.

The spokesperson said accompanying winds had been useful for drying the fruit and so avoiding it splitting.

“We had a good pick last week when the few showers cleared up,” the spokesperson said.

“The good thing is the breeze is nice, so we cross our fingers and hope for one if it rains.

“Sometimes we go in with the blowers to dry them off.”

Mr Coombes said the wheat harvest had not really ‘jumped into gear’.

“The rain has seen some (farmers) getting into the canola, then the barley and then some into wheat.

“We have not really had any consistency, so I have got no consistency in supply.

“It’s just one of those crazy seasons.”

Mr Coombes said grain trading was currently short of barley.

“We’ve got Melbourne traders chasing barley, but we are nearly out of old stock.

“And at this time of year, the old crop and the new crop need to come together on price, but the weather has pretty well held us all up.

Mr Coombes said the rain had been doing a lot of damage to wheat stands and was a ‘bit of a raw topic’ for farmers at the moment.

“Wheat will be held up too if this weather continues — we were hoping to get well into it too by now.”

Mr Crisera said he was hoping that last weekend’s (November 30 to December 1) forecast would not be too bad.

“Fingers crossed we don’t get what is forecast,” Mr Crisera said.