Eastern Wheatbelt and Great Southern crops bear brunt of sudden downpour weeks into harvest

WA grain farmers’ paddocks have been belted with rain just weeks into harvest, with the Great Southern and Eastern Wheatbelt copping the brunt of the downpour.

Parts of the Mid West, Lower Great Southern, and Eastern Wheatbelt have copped a pummelling of rain during the past week, with some parts reporting more than 65mm.

A large portion of the Mid West received small bouts of rain with the exception of the small locality of Dudawa, north of Three Springs, which recorded 58.6mm.

Carnamah East and Coorow reported slightly lower rainfall totals of 31mm and 32.4mm respectively.

The heaviest falls recorded by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and Bureau of Meteorology were at Tunney West, 67.2mm, and Frankland North, at 52.6mm, in the Great Southern — which copped the brunt of rainfall.

Eastern Wheatbelt residents also reported their fare share of rain, with Kulin recording 45.8mm and nearby Pingaring copping 31.4mm.

Rainfall was lighter for Esperance residents, with Cascade clocking 18.6mm and 9.6mm for Scaddan — while the small locality of Mt Ney recorded the highest at 31.4mm.

Kulin farmer Barry West said his properties been “belted by rain” across a period of a week, receiving between 11mm and 45mm in bouts of showers.

“We got between 11mm at one end of the farm, 22mm in the middle, and 45mm at the other end,” he said.

“We’re going pretty well, we’ve got all the canola off. We’re probably only about 20 per cent into the barley, and we have started lupins too . . . about a quarter of the way through.

“It won’t be too bad out there — it’ll pick up.”

Mr West’s farm was battered by a sudden downpour on November 22 that left a building damaged.

“We got hit by a real small cell that dropped about 25mm in about eight minutes, and that made a bit of a mess,” he said.

“We had a bit of damage on one of the houses . . . the water came down that quick it filled back into the eave and the eave collapsed onto the veranda in one spot.

“It’s nature at its best.”

Kojonup farmer Emily Stretch said she had received about 50mm in the past week at her home farm.

Currently helping out her in-laws with harvest in Cunderdin, she said it had been not unseasonably wet, just “frustratingly so”.

“For the number of hectares that we have to do here on my partner’s farm in Cunderdin . . . at the moment, it is dragging out a ridiculously long time because of the weather,” she said.

“Other people have definitely fared worse in terms of the severity of the rain or just the volume of rain.”

Ms Stretch said they had received between 10 to 20mm during November, accompanied by lightning storms.

“The weather fronts have a had a lot of overcast, low temp days that have gone with them, so the drying weather isn’t there,” she said.

“It has dragged out a bit . . . a small amount of rain has held people up for longer.

“There’s been plenty of lightning with the storms, but thankfully, it’s been wet so (fire) isn’t too much of an issue.”

In its latest harvest report, CBH Group noted that harvest went back to a “stop-start pace” as inclement weather moved across WA, breaking momentum from the previous week.

It said growers had been held up due to a variety of weather events including rain, hail, lightning, and fire with harvest bans issued in some shires.

Chief operations officer Mick Daw said more daily site records were set when growers were able to resume their operations, despite the interruptions.

“When they were able to get back to harvesting, growers are getting the crop off quicker and getting more tonnes to site quicker,” he said.

“We are still seeing new site and zone records coming in — despite the rain and other weather events.”

RAINFALL TOTALS (According to BOM and DPIRD)

Mid West

Carnamah East — 31mm

Coorow — 32.4mm

Dudawa — 58.6mm

Latham — 19.4mm

Moora — 24.2mm

Beacon — 22.6mm

Wheatbelt

Kondinin — 28.2mm

Kulin — 45.8mm

Highbury East — 29.8mm

Pingaring — 31.4mm

Shackleton — 24.6mm

Tunney West — 67.2mm

Yilgarn — 33mm

Woodanilling — 25.6mm

Great Southern

Frankland North — 52.6mm

Kojonup — 41mm

Manypeaks — 46.4mm

Mt Barker — 51.4mm

Ongerup — 15.2mm

Woogenellup — 40.6mm

Esperance

Cascade — 18.6mm

Mt Ney — 31.4mm

Salmon Gums — 16.2mm