Canola cops yield check

The damage is so severe in some districts crops are between an 80 to 100 per cent write-offs, with many graingrowers lucky to recover costs. Stock will be run into many of the wheat crops.

The cropping scene improves further south towards Young and Harden, with less frost damage and better rainfall, although follow up rain is needed in the next three weeks to get crops to their high potential, farmers hoping for a couple rounds of 20mm.

Phil Grey from AgnVet Trundle said it was a dismal scene in many parts of the area from Tottenham down to Condobolin, and especially between Tullamore and Trundle.

“There has been severe frost damage I’d say anything from 50 to 100 per cent damage in most crops,” he said. There had been grain and flower frost damage, where sometimes it had hit minus 5 degrees in some areas. Although barley was largely untouched. 

It was only now that some of the damage was being seen as warmer weather approached. “It would be 80 to 100 per cent damage in higher areas and 80-90 per cent in lower areas,” Mr Grey said.

“It would be a miracle if some farmers even got half their crop off,” Mr Grey said. “A lot of stock has gone into the crop paddocks already. They will be very lucky to cover costs (and only by putting ewes with lambs onto crops).” The main canola varieties in the Trundle area are Victory and TT.

It is a similarly bleak picture for canola and wheat heading up towards Wellington and Dubbo. Michael White of Wellington’s Michael White and Co (CRT) said the situation throughout the state had been put to him simply at a Grain Trade NSW conference last weekend  when rural supply merchants met. “A third of NSW crops are in good shape, a third are in the maybe or maybe not category and a third won’t make it,” the merchants were told.

“Canola is a real problem, the hybrids are hanging in there but the non-hybrids are suffering,” Mr White said.

“Another two weeks, if we can get some rain, will be critical, but it looks like half of it will get eaten off. Frost has really knocked around the canolas and you don’t always notice it until you cut down the stem. The pods are not filling out and those in the pod have pinched fully.” He said there had been uneven rain in most districts but he had heard of one canola framer at Albert who received 80mm of rain at the end of July with his crop doing wonders only to see mice a few weeks later run on his crop and eat the plant heads.

“How do you win.? ”Mr White said.

The weather-damaged canola is a miserable outcome for farmers as canola prices remain strong. The benchmark for Australian canola had seen  prices climbing from plus $520 per tonne to more than $540/t.

But there are gems amongst the carnage especially in the southern areas of NSW. At Young, Frank Thompson, general manager of Thompsons Rural Supplies, said a crop near Monteagle was one of the best he’d seen in the district. He said most canola crops had escaped  frost damage in the Young district.

Griff Evans, “Merryvale”, had planted about 50ha of Mako canola, sown at 2.8kg a hectare on May 10. He was expecting the crop to go 2-2.5kg a hectare. It was planted on new country.  “He’s looked after it very well, it is very weed free and very little grasses on it. It was sown a little bit deep, but it made it a lot stronger. It’s developed fairly well and is throwing its leaves off pretty well to.

“Last Thursday we had 5-6mm which kicked it along.”

Aphids were emerging as problem at the end of the season, Mr Thompson said.

Farmers at Harden, which has strong canola crops, said the next three weeks would be critical with rain needed. NSW’ grain harvest have already been revised down 30 per cent from last year, but may go further from the frost damage.