Alate burst of winter rainfall has lifted the spirits of the Limestone Coast’s farmers, breaking the run of dry weather and providing hope for the coming season.
Mount Gambier last month recorded its first above average monthly rainfall figure for the year, following a record breaking dry first half of 2024.
Mount Gambier recorded 114mm of rain for July, compared to the annual monthly average of 100.2mm.
Despite last month’s good falls, the region is still well down on its long term annual average, which usually sits at 401.2mm. So far this year Mount Gambier has recorded 289mm, while at the same time last year 511.8mm had fallen.
Mount Gambier Combined Agents chair Chris Manser said the recent rains had given a bit more confidence to the farming community.
“It’s shown itself that it can rain, up until now it’s been one of the tougher autumns and winters that we have had for quite a while,” he said.
“The older fellows in the industry are saying it’s almost a replica of 1967, that year we just did not have the autumn or the opening rains and it did not rain until around about now apparently.
“So far it’s one of the tougher years that I can remember, we have had slower seasons before, we have had other bad ones in 2006 or 2007, there’s been a couple through my time in in the industry, but it’s certainly been one of the toughest.
“To cap it off, our spring of last year we sort of did not have one, it was a very unusual one, it sort of stopped raining in August, September and October, we did not have much rainfall, then we had November and December rain which gave us a little spring.
“If you talk to most of the hay contractors most of the hay cuts were down by half, we came into this year with a low level of storage and this put more pressure on this year, a lot of people have been hand feeding since February and they are still hand feeding up to today.”
Mr Manser said there would not be a hay shed in the region that was not close to empty.
“A lot of hay has been brought in from northern Victoria and the top of SA from our northern areas, people have been sourcing hay from outside the area,” he said.
“It’s added to the cost of everything … particularly our year has not been great as prices have been a concern, cattle prices have been down, they are starting to rise now, but it has not helped the farmers.”
Mr Manser said all was not yet lost, with the current conditions helping to erase fears of a green drought.
“Looking at it, as long as we can get the September and October rains we may look back on this season and say gee it was tough but we have ended up okay,” he said.
“If we do not then we are going to be in a fair bit of strife, there would not be a lot of fodder cut again, a lot of people are out … this year they might want to cut more paddocks to build supply back up, if we do not get a spring it’s going to be very, very tough.
“I’m optimistic, July has been okay, if we can get those rains. Generally speaking down here in the South East we could have 20 inches of rain in June, July and early August and end up not being a good year.
“We have got to get the spring rain, that is what grows our fodder here.
“We are hanging in there, farmers are a very optimistic group of people, if we can get those spring rains we will look back and say this year was a tough start but a good finish.”
