Deputy Premier Paul Toole is also committed. “Mother nature has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at farmers over the past few years – droughts,fires,floods,a mice plague – but they are the most resilient humans you’ll ever meet and we want them to know we’ve got their back,” he said,adding the SES had received 5000 requests for help recently.
At Forbes airport,in the state’s Central West,172.6 millimetres of rain was recorded in November,breaking the 2010 record of 136.2 millimetres.
Forbes agronomist Max Ridley isn’t sure what to tell his clients after this spring’s flooding. When the town last flooded in 2016,it suffered more than $80 million in damage. While the volume of water isn’t as high this time,the region’s farmers can only watch as what would have been a bumper crop of canola is wasted.
Mr Ridley estimates about 70 per cent of the town’s canola is yet to be harvested and he fears it will be unable to be sold if it doesn’t make the market testing grades.
“There’s not much anyone can do except wait,” he said. “The crop yields that occurred before this last burst of rain were very good. It’s all just so frustrating.
“We can’t finish the harvest and three-quarters of the town’s crops are sitting in paddocks completely exposed.”
Mr Ridley said it was not just canola that had been affected,but wheat and barley too. “We have wheat that was looking at a valuation of $350-$400 a ton,after this rain event it will be $200.”
Some of the crop will be able to be sold as feed but at far less than the record prices Mr Ridley and the rest of regional NSW was expecting. Thanks to a global shortage of canola,price estimations before the onset of La Niña grew to $850 per ton,close to a 70 per cent increase on last year.
Even with the flooding,the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimates this harvest will be one of the biggest winter crops nationwide,meaning the devastation shouldn’t impact supermarket supplies,or the cost of food.
According to CSIRO researcher Steve Henry,the mouse levels across regional NSW are no longer in plague proportions,but the risk remains. “They’re there,and they’re breeding,but it’s patchy,” he said.
He’s concerned by how long it is taking farmers to harvest because of the rain. “We’ve had so much wet weather that when farmers get a chance to harvest they go as hard as they can,” Mr Henry said. “Between that and crops falling over,there’ll be a lot of grain left behind for the mice.”
He advises farmers to exercise caution,and continue to monitor the stubble size of their crop to make sure the numbers are in control before the next season.
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