IT’S make-or-break time for summer plantings – and the start of what many hope is a few days of rain to come has bolstered hopes.
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Light-to-medium falls of rain rolled in over the plains overnight Sunday and yesterday – and farmers desperate to get moisture profile to plant summer crops have begun calling seed suppliers.
It follows an extraordinarily dry winter and spring, with fears raised recently that if substantial rain did not arrive soon, many would not plant summer crops like sorghum and dryland cotton.
Already, 20-30 per cent of the sorghum crop had been planted from Narrabri up to the border – but parts of it had already died from lack of moisture northern NSW and Liverpool Plains seed company Pioneer Hybrid area manager Sam Gall said.
He said his phone ran off the hook yesterday with inquiries from farmers, particularly for forage sorghum seed.
With 30mm forecast for the North West Slopes and Plains by Friday – with most expected later this week – farmers are waiting nervously for the season game-changer so they can plant summer crops with confidence.
The highest fall in our region up to 9am yesterday was at Yarrowitch with 9.6mm, then came Tambar Springs on 9.5mm and Nundle on 9mm.
Many farmers had been holding off planting – but some, like Scott Flinn, of the property Karingle near Tamworth, took the plunge last week, not knowing whether it would rain soon or not.
Mr Flinn had direct drilled 57 hectares of forage sorghum in the hope that it would rain.
He said he would sow another 20 hectares of sorghum only if it rained – he was not willing to risk it otherwise because “it costs so much to plant”.
Depressingly, he direct drilled the sorghum into a failed winter barley crop – both his barley (32ha) and oats (49ha) winter crops had failed because of lack of rain.
“Since (the barley) was sown it had 41mm on it. She’s been a fairly hard year, mate,” Mr Flinn said.
But he’s optimistic the drought, now in its third year for some parts of NSW, would have to end eventually.
“Somewhere this is going to break,” Mr Flinn said.
The three-month outlook by the Bureau of Meteorology, released last Thursday said a drier-than-normal summer was more likely over northern, eastern and central parts of Australia, with a warmer-than-normal season for both daytime and night-time temperatures across most of Australia.
RAIN TO 9AM MONDAY
Armidale 2.2mm, Barraba 2mm, Bendemeer 6mm, Blackville 2.6mm, Bomera Creek 1.5mm, Bundella 2mm, Caroona 0.5mm, Dumaresq Dam 5mm, Gunnedah 4mm, Guyra 4mm, Mt Kaputar 2mm, Mullaley 2mm, Newholme 3.5mm, Pine Ridge 0.6mm, Tambar Springs 9.5mm, Quirindi 0.4mm, Nowendoc 3mm, Nundle 9mm, Uralla 5.6mm, Woolbrook 0.8mm, Yarrowitch 9.6mm.
RAIN 9AM-3PM MONDAY
Armidale 1.4mm, Mullaley 1.4mm, Tambar Springs 2.5mm, Nowendoc and Walcha 1mm, Weabonga 2.6mm, Woolbrook 3mm, Tenterfield 14mm.
