SOUTH East farmers will remember 2015 for all the wrong reasons, with Keith, Bordertown and Naracoorte 100 millimetres to 150mm behind their average annual rainfall, and on track for their driest years.
Grain crops had been holding on using the last of subsoil moisture but temperatures of more than 35C degrees during the long weekend had finished many off.
Cox Rural Naracoorte agronomist James Heffernan said it was decision time, with many mid South East growers doing the sums of harvesting for grain versus cutting for hay.
"Everyone was well aware we were on a knife edge. There is an opportunity in the next few days to make a management decision to make the most of what they have got in the paddock," he said.
"Hay is as good an option as any but there are more risks with it, and some people do not have the storage for it," he said.
Mr Heffernan said subsoil moisture had been depleted by a severe growing-season rainfall deficit and cereal crops had deteriorated rapidly. Many bean crops were also likely to be heavily affected.
"Growers not doing anything could see a 3 to 4 tonne a hectare crop become 1.5-2t/ha if they are lucky, but those making a decision have the chance to maybe make a difference of a few hundred dollars/ha."
Jolpac Rural Supplies director Jamie Weatherald said the long weekend's conditions were the "nail in the coffin" of many crops in the Upper SE.
"It has been a really tough year. There are cereal crops which are not even out in head and don't have enough energy to push out a head," he said.
"We are cutting down canola, wheat and barley which was frosted a fortnight ago, and there are beans with a maximum three to six pods per plant.
"Last year we got out of jail. It was not the train wreck we expected but the difference was we had subsoil moisture from early in the season."
Bordertown cropper Ted Langley said the 2015 season in the Upper South East had been a "challenge all the way through" with prevailing dry conditions, but the latest blow was a severe frost a fortnight ago.
Last week he was cutting frosted canola and cereal crops for hay, with the worst damage occurring in low-lying areas along Tatiara Creek.
He estimates about 20 per cent of the area sown to canola and 10pc of his wheat crops have been frosted.
"It has only happened twice in the past 20 years but being so dry this year has exposed it to the risk of frost," he said.
"We are cutting it to get some value and as a management tool to prepare the paddock for next year. If we didn't cut it or harvest it, it would be difficult to sow into next year."
He said having two well below average rainfall years in a row was particularly concerning.
Catherine Miller
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
