HE’S not classifying it as a disaster, but Quambatook graingrower Brett Hosking said after almost a year’s rainfall in six weeks – and at the wrong end of the season – this year’s harvest will be very disappointing.
And sitting on the header in a wheat paddock at 8pm on Wednesday he wasn’t seeing anything to change his estimate.
In fact, the only thing he was really looking at was his chaser bin bogged in the paddock he was working.
“Yep, right now harvest sucks,” was his professional assessment after October’s and November’s rain.
Mr Hosking said most of his wheat would be downgraded to feed from Australian Standard White – that’s a discount of as much as $20 a tonne – although he was pleased he had been able to get his 1000 acres of barley off before the last round of rain hit.
“We also got about a quarter of our 1600 acres of wheat off as well, but the rain got the rest and that will all be downgraded,” he added.
“A lot of the grain around here will be going feed because of the weather damage and from what I hear around the traps, a lot of the enthusiasm for this year’s harvest has gone very flat.
“And although we didn’t have any this year, I have heard while the early canola reports were good and although the weather caught that as well, with new segregations needed on the back of low test weights, it will still be viable.”
Mr Hosking was able to cut a bit of hay early, and although it also copped a little bit of rain, he said it has pressed well and also tested well.
He said the hay market was a bit all over the shop at the moment, but he was expecting it might improve.
“With the early frosts we had, a lot of buyers assumed people would be cutting a lot of hay and that kept prices down,” Mr Hosking said.
“But with the southwest of the state in a real feed deficit, and maybe not as much hay around as was first thought, I am hoping those prices will bounce back.
“I guess you could say all this late rain has ruined a near drought, we just wish it had held off a little bit longer.”
The upshot of that is farmers who can get onto their paddocks are already stepping up their spraying programs as the rain creates the challenge of a serious green bridge carrying weed burdens through the summer and into sowing.
But as Mr Hosking pointed out, there is still a lot of bogged machinery around the district.
“Apart from my chaser bin being stuck, I have been crabbing around too many very wet spots in this paddock, which is why I am not going on after dark or the header might get stuck too,” he said.
