This week's rain and colder temperatures are seeing Griffith growers wait anxiously for what's to come this harvesting season. Griffith received 23.2 millimetres on Saturday and 1.4 millimetres on Sunday measured at Griffith airport with more rain forecast for this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Benerembah wheat and cotton farmer Gavin Dal Broi said the rain over the weekend has meant mixed emotions with rain welcome for wheat but could delay the growth of his cotton if it continues.
"Spring is always a bit of a scary issue for us, it's always a bit up in the air as to what sort of storm events you can get," Mr Dal Broi said.
"Most of our irrigated wheat should be ready in the next month or so for harvest so if it stays dry from now on it will be really beneficial.
"But the cold weather and keeping the ground wet is probably not the best for our cotton. It delays the growth of the cotton by about a week with this cold weather and cloud as well."
Growers in the Griffith region have fortunately avoided the extreme damage experienced by farmers further north in NSW who saw heavy rainfall, hail and winds damage much of their winter crops over the weekend. However, Mr Dal Broi explained that if Griffith continues to get rain over the next two to three week, it could cause some real issues for growers.
Further to the north of Griffith however, dry land croppers Matthew and Monica Malloy have just began their canola harvesting and the rain has already had an impact on their progress.
"It's definitely been a wetter year than last year and we have some really great crops this year," Mrs Malloy said.
"The rain we've had already is having an impact on getting the crops off the paddocks and into storage.
"We've only just started harvesting over the last week or so
Having had encouraging long term forecasts back in March for higher rainfall, the Malloys took a chance and planted canola, wheat and barley among other grains for this season.
"We've got a wide variety planted this season, wider than we usually go just because we had a great start to the season and it was predicted to have good rainfall this year," Mrs Malloy said.
Continued rainfall could be problematic for the Malloys, delaying harvesting even more and setting back their progress for the year.
"If we hadn't have had that significant rainfall over the weekend we would be harvesting some cereal crops," Mrs Malloy said.
"We can definitely do with it drying up from now on."
READ MORE
Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
