Rain arrives right on time

After weeks of dry weather rain has fallen across the state giving pastures and crops a much-needed boost.

This week’s rain, which saw falls of between 20mm-110mm across large parts of the state, was ideally timed for most crops.

TasFarmers vegetable Council chairman Nathan Richardson said it had been a busy irrigation season so far for many producers, after very little rain during October and November.

“From what I’ve seen everyone has been irrigating as much as they can and the good thing about November is it has been particularly warmer than October and that’s been very welcome,” he said.

With harvesting of early season pea crops due to start in the next few weeks, Mr Richardson said the rain was perfectly timed for most crops.

“It’s probably the best-timed rain you could ask for in terms of peas, beans potatoes poppies and grain fill on wheat and barley,” he said.

“There shouldn’t be anyone complaining unless we get something ridiculous.”

Mr Richardson said the rain would bring some relief to farmers battling to irrigate recently sown crops including potatoes.

Botanical Resources Australia pyrethrum production manager Mark Raspin said the rain was also news  for the company’s crops.

“It’s good for us and probably perfect timing before it’s full flowering so it will benefit and finish off crops nicely,” he said.

“It will also be brilliant for the crops we’ve got in the ground that were planted in the spring.”

The company had a difficult start to the planting season  due to very wet conditions during August which washed away newly sown crops.

“We really missed the first six-week window for planting in Tassie and then it has been quite dry, so a lot of growers have had to irrigate,” he said.

Mr Raspin said with more rain forecast for tomorrow, there was likely to be a significant financial benefit with improvements in crops and savings on irrigation.

“On average most of our crop would be 50 per cent open, so there’s a low level of exposure,” he said.

“In and week to ten days we wouldn’t like to see too much come through, but you can’t beat a good rain though.” 

Extractas Bioscience field operations manager Noel Beven said the rain had been welcomed by poppy growers as well after what has been a challenging season so far.

“It has been cold and windy too, so the growth has only just started to take off in the last ten days,” he said.

“Growing conditions were quite harsh up until ten days ago when the wind abated, and this is really the first decent rain… it has been a long time between drinks.”

Mr Beven said rainfall events of more than 20mm were particularly beneficial for crops like poppies.

Simplot potato committee chairman Leigh Elphinstone said he was one of many farmers happy to see the rain.

“I reckon nearly every farmer would be glad to see that rain,” he said.

“Things had got quite dry and the pressure was starting to come on with getting irrigation in full swing on everything.”

Mr Elphinstone said the dry conditions had also become an issue for farmers trying to plant crops, including potatoes.

“Even for the stuff going in it was getting pretty dry and they needed a bit of moisture,” he said.

 “If we can get a follow up it’s going to mean a lot of money for a lot of people, and it will take a bit of pressure and stress away from people as well.”