SOME parts of the Eyre Peninsula have received their first significant rainfall of the season, with the Bureau of Meteorology reporting falls of up to 14 millimetres on Tuesday night.
Landmark Tumby Bay agronomist Chris Pearce said things had been “getting pretty desperate” up until that point but more follow-up rain would be needed to allow crops to grow.
Until this fall, Mr Pearce said rain had been sporadic.
“There has not been a typical front come through where everyone got a bit of rain,” he said. “There have been some lucky enough to get a little bit but it has generally still been well short of sufficient.”
He said there had been subsoil moisture about six or eight weeks ago but this was “virtually dry” and would need good follow-up rains to keep crops going.
Landmark Cleve agronomist Marty Lovegrove said this rain was the biggest in the region since February and would lead to farmers having to make decisions about whether to continue, or even begin, sowing.
But he said the late start would have an effect.
“(The impact) has been up and down,” he said. “Some parts of the region are relatively OK, but some are at the stage of minimising losses.”
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Cleve has received 43.4 millimetres of rain since the end of February to June with Ungarra receiving 25.6mm in the same period.
Mr Lovegrove said there would be fewer crops sown this year.
“There are people in the district who are at the stage where they are not going to grow a crop,” he said.
“A lot of the people who have planted this year have cut back most of their hectares.”
At Wharminda, Caleb Prime said it had been the driest period his family had seen in all the records they had kept.
“It’s new territory,” he said.
Caleb, who farms with partner Sarah Powell, brother Jarred, father Peter, uncles Chris and Andrew and grandfather Geoff, said they have sown about 95 per cent of their sheep feed but only about 40pc of the cropping program.
Depending on rain, they may sow another 10pc but he said they have already stopped and started three times.
“We have not moved in about a month,” he said.
He said germination had been patchy in some areas.
“It’s the flip of a normal season in that the sand is what has come up and heavier soils have held onto their moisture more and haven’t germinated,” he said.
He said rain in the past few days was welcome but he said they needed a good fall to help boost sheep feed.
They have begun buying in grain, lupins and hay for supplementary feeding.
“I’d say we’re going to learn a bit from this year – the good and the bad bits,” Caleb said.
Elizabeth Anderson
Editor of Stock Journal.
Editor of Stock Journal.
