SOLID frontal rain last weekend is expected to inject millions of dollars into the State’s economy.
While there remains patchy areas throughout the Wheatbelt, more than 90 per cent of crops will finish off better than the position they were in last week, stressing under enduring hot temperatures.
The rain has brought a palpable sigh of relief in farming districts facing what was considered an uncertain finish to the season.
Fingers remain crossed for mild weather conditions over the next fortnight to set up a harvest many farmers thought might not happen.
According to Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) duty forecaster Max Strack, more rain was expected across most of the grainbelt today.
“We do have another cold front coming through on Thursday but that’s gong to be quite a lot weaker,” Ms Strack said.
“We’re expecting falls more up to 10 millimetres rather than what we’ve seen with the last system.
“For the weekend, a high pressure system is coming in across the south of the State so we’re going to see much clearer conditions as that develops.”
Ms Strack said a low pressure system off the coast of Perth was behind the widespread rain across the agricultural region over the weekend
According to BOM, most of the South West land division received significant rain between 9am Sunday and 9am Monday.
A severe weather warning was in place for the Albany and Mt Barker region, with flash flooding reported along parts of the South Coast.
“We’ve seen falls of between 60mm to 90mm just to the north east of Albany over the Ranges – Albany itself has had 45-50mm,” Ms Strack said.
“Through the Great Southern and Central Wheatbelt we’ve had less rain, rainfall through there has been more in the 2-10mm range.
“Geraldton had 8mm and closer to Perth we’ve had falls of between 10-40mm, that’s kind of the story south of the line from Perth through to Bremer Bay.”
Here’s a snapshot of how WA farmers reacted to the rain:
Brad Burns, Balla: “We’ve had 15-20mm across the (rain) gauges which is handy. It would have been better last week when we copped a couple of hot days in the mid-30s which put the crop back a bit, but we’ll now finish with mainly below-average crops with the cereals, while the lupins and canola will be a bit poorer.
“Hopefully it will now stay cool this week which will just be about the end of it for us as we normally start harvesting about the middle of October.
“We’ve kept our inputs fairly tight so if the price stays up, a below-average crop won’t be too bad.
“So price is critical and we’d like it closer to $300 a tonne than $250.”
Anthony Farrell, Yuna: “We averaged about nine millimetres over the farm which has really turned things around for us.
“Most of our crops are still green so the rain will fill out the heads and finish them off.
“We put in a fair swag of Calingiri so hopefully we’ll stay with a soft finish and make that noodle window because prices have lifted a bit.
“Frankly I’m a bit blown away from where we were in June hoping to get our seed back.
“We even considered spraying out the canola but we left it and we should get at least 0.4 tonnes (a hectare) so overall it should be okay for us now.”
Fenton Dean, Mullewa: “It’s still raining now (Monday 8.30am) so this is the soft finish we’ve been waiting for.
“We got 25-30mm over the weekend which was very timely considering the hot days last week which really put crops under stress and if we hadn’t have got this rain they may not have made it.
“It has really turned around for us and this will finish off our early crops.
“We could still get benefit from another rain for our crops that didn’t germinate until July so cross fingers we’ll get that too.”
Dean Levett, Walkaway: “Most of the district recorded 20-25mm over the weekend and that will really help the crops that are still green.
Last week’s hot weather finished off the crops that were struggling but for the majority of crops it’s good news and it means the hay cutters can have a day off.
“It’s a brilliant result and if it stays reasonable cool from now on, it won’t put crops under stress and may help take a few aphids out.”
Ian Shadbolt, Mukinbudin: “We’re very happy with 18mm over four days and I reckon that might give us an extra bag.
“It’s still a bit patchy throughout the district and you don’t have to go too far east of us to hear of guys who missed out.
“Up here nothing germinated until those July rains, so most crops are only now coming out of ear.
“With this rain, we’re in with a chance now.”
Brad West, Wongan Hills: “We’ve recorded 18mm over the four days to Monday which will help us big time.
“We’ve been lucky because we’re right on the line of poor results to the north of us.
“This rain will help fill the heads in the crops and hopefully we’ll now get decent grain.
“If we could get another fortnight of mild spring weather, that would be great to finish off the season and give us a result.”
Grant Humphrey, York: “We were hoping for a soft finish but it’s better than we expected.
“We’ve had a good 25mm since last Thursday which will help to fill out the wheat, barley and canola and once it clears, we’ll be cutting for hay.
“It has been an exceptional finish after an ordinary start.”
John Collins, baling contractor, York: “A lot of crops are still standing so the rain will be of great benefit.
“People will start cutting this week and I expect to be baling for clients in about two weeks.”
Brenton Hinkley, Gnowangerup: “Since Friday we’ve had about 33mm and at our farm at Rocky Gully we’ve had about 60mm.”
“I haven’t got much crop in at all, I’ve got 11,000 sheep so we only grew sheep feed this year because grain prices didn’t make us that enthusiastic, so we’ve got about 600ha of sheep feed in, we might sell a little bit of barley but we’ll see.
“Another week and we would have been in trouble but we’re all back in the game.
“You can’t beat September rain – any rain is good rain but September is the best.”
Matt Campbell, Ongerup: We’ve had 35mm so its really good, it’s a pretty good finisher.
“It should nearly get them home I reckon.
“We’re probably two to three weeks off swathing, so probably five weeks away from harvest.”
Lochy Wehre, Scaddan: “I’ve measured 16.5mm here last night (Sunday night) and I had another 6mm on Friday, we don’t very often say it at this time of year but we’re nearly perfect, or nearly wet.
“It will just help everything fill properly, we’ve definitely got enough rain to finish now.
“I think yields will be a little bit above average, I’m a bit nervous because two years ago we got burnt out with that fire and then last year I got fairly smashed with frost with my wheat.
“We’re a good month away from harvest, I just want to get it off this year across the weighbridge.”
Phil Longmire, Beaumont: We’ve had a bout 20mm for the weekend, it’s definitely good timing.
“It will be really helpful, we were looking for it, especially after a couple of warm days it will get us a long way.
“I think we’ll have an average harvest.”
