Farmers in a wide corridor from Condobolin up to Nyngan are blessing last week’s rain event, which has saved the day and allowed them to finish off lambs on new sown oats as lamb prices skyrocket.
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At Ungarie almost 90 per cent of the crop is in, and those that gambled by dry sowing in May, are calling the late June rain a “miracle”.
Farmers are still about to sow on the back of the rain at Nyngan, one of many towns in a wide strip south that had 30mm and above of steady rain last Wednesday and Thursday. Of course it was heartbreaking for farmers in the east of the Central-West, where the rain was not as heavy, many places recording little more than 5mm.
Scott Robb, “Danbury”, Ungarie, said everyone in the district was about on their last legs for feed when the rain came – and he was getting nervous himself even though he has probably the largest storage of grain and fodder in the district.
He’s been in and sown oats, wheat and barley in early to mid-May, and a bit of rainfall over the month just kept the crops ticking over until last week, when the gamble really paid off, with just over 30mm for much of the Ungarie district.
He’s sown about 320ha of oats, and will put his weaned lambs on to that in about three weeks time. He can’t believe many commodity and livestock prices compared to two years ago, especially for barley and lambs.
“We’ve just sold some lambs for $255 a head at Griffith and the wool market is going through the roof,” he said.
“Many people have been doing it very tough, and this rain has been a miracle. I put in some grazing oats about three weeks ago, put some urea on it, and in about two to three weeks I’ll put some weaning lambs into it, it’s going to be awesome.”
Mr Robb said he learnt from previous droughts to keep high grain reserves for when the dry times came. And they did in a big way – Ungarie hasn’t had more than 120mm in the last six months. According to Patrick Mulqueeney, from Ag’n’Vet Ungarie, farmers were relying on subsoil moisture from two years ago, when they went into paddocks recently to sow crops – mostly wheat, barley and oats. Almost everyone has given up on canola this year in the area. And then Ungarie had a nice fall of rain last December.
“God help us if we didn’t have that December rain,” Mr Robb said.
Barley prices are also at record levels, and so the rain may compensate if growers can get a barley crop off. Mr Robb kept about 5000 tonnes of barley back last year. “It’s hard to believe that two years ago we were looking at $130 a tonne, now barley is up about $400 a tonne. I think some people are a little short-minded and don’t keep some of their crop back for the dry times. I kept 5000 tonnes of barley, and just sold it off bit by bit. The last time I sold it was about $300 a tonne. Droughts have taught me a few things, I’ve also put a lot of silage underground, but even I was getting nervous, to go without any serious rain for six months.”
Many canola crops have failed. Most crops sown in April ended up shot.
John Ellicott
journalist and author
journalist and author
