Rain has finally hit the gauges in East Gippsland with differing falls across the region, adding moisture to paddocks stripped by at least six weeks of wind through early spring.
Up at Benambra where the year has been drastically dry, Amanda Pendergast said the family farm, just west of Lake Omeo, received 23mm on Sunday.
“We spread a bit of super on some crops and this rain will help,” she said.
“We got an early cut of ryegrass which is nice to have.
“In the paddocks it’s green but there’s nothing there.
“If we don’t get more rain soon, we’ll be chasing fires.”
In Dargo, Mick Sweeney said he had received about 13mm late Sunday.
He said the last good rainfall was in early August and the Dargo area needed “lots more”.
“We’ve done silage and we’ll do hay shortly but more rain would be nice to ensure the crop grows.”
He said he had heard there was rain forecast for November but “they also said it’d rain in October…”.
“I’m a bit disappointed in the Bureau, they predicted 20-40mm and we didn’t get it.
“Farmers plan crop sowing and other activities on BoM’s predictions.”
At Buchan more than 30mm fell across Sunday and Monday morning, while there was 21mm recorded at Glenaladale.
A look at the weather station information on the Gippsland Agricultural Group website shows that the one- to three-month rainfall outlook, using information from Agriculture Victoria’s Fast Break, says more models are predicting a wetter than average season.
The weather station data can be accessed under the ‘research’ tab.
