THUNDERSTORM activity throughout northern parts of the WA grainbelt interrupted harvest operations and left growers dealing with significant crop damage.
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Since last Wednesday, several isolated rain events have passed through the South West land division, frustrating farmers who just a few months ago would have welcomed such downpours.
On Sunday afternoon Kristin Lefroy recorded 48 millimetres of rain and hail on his 9000 hectare mixed cropping and sheep farm at Walebing.
Mr Lefroy said the hail caused significant damage to 700ha of his cropping program.
“We lost 600ha of canola and barley that was completely ruined,” Mr Lefroy said.
“We also lost 50ha of lupins and 50ha of oats.
“All of our dry feed will be ruined, although there is enough stubble and there should be some re-sprouting after these rains.”
Mr Lefroy said other parts of his property received much less rain which he hoped would allow him to continue harvesting early in the week.
“Our north-end block only received about 10mm and not a lot of hail, so we will try harvesting there.”
Hail passed through Wubin grower Boyd Carter’s property on Sunday evening, causing substantial damage to his 500ha canola program.
Mr Carter said about 80 per cent of a 280ha canola paddock was impacted, along with a 210ha barley paddock.
“There’s a little bit of damage in the wheat but it’s mainly in the canola,” Mr Carter said.
“We’ve finished most of our barley, but about 210ha of barley was taken out.”
Mr Carter said the farm received between 4.5mm and 12mm during Sunday’s storm.
He hoped to continue harvesting the remaining 70pc of his program this week.
David Riches said consistent rain over the past week had interrupted his harvest operation several times.
Mr Riches runs a 4800ha mixed cropping and sheep farm at Watheroo, where he received 7mm last Tuesday.
“We probably had 1mm or 2mm on Wednesday but were able to get going again early Thursday,” Mr Riches said.
“We had between 2mm and 8mm on Thursday last week at the home property and a bit less at Namban, so we were able to carry on and finish the barley at Namban on Saturday before shifting back home.”
Mr Riches said he was grateful to have missed out on rain over the weekend and hoped the weather remained dry for the rest of harvest.
Corrigin grower Geoffrey Fisher didn’t have the same luck, recording up to 8mm on his 1400ha property over the weekend.
Canola, wheat, barley, lupins and oats and export hay was grown on Mr Fisher’s property this season and he was harvesting canola and carting hay when the rain hit.
“Sunday was our first rain, we have been lucky enough to dodge all the storms until now,” Mr Fisher said.
“We had to park up.”
According to Bureau of Meteorology WA media and communications manager Neil Bennett, isolated storms had hit several regions from Geraldton to Esperance over the past week.
Mr Bennett said storm activity was normal for this time of year, and more rain was expected towards the end of this week.
“There are troughs moving over the State and low pressure can form down the eastern side of the trough line, causing thunderstorms to form,” Mr Bennett said.
“Localised storms mean there will be areas that will get heavy rainfall and some that get little to no rainfall.
“This will be the pattern we see until March next year, which is unfortunate if you are trying to get a crop off, but normal for this time of year.
“There looks to be a continuation of showers this week, with Thursday having widespread showers.”
