By CAITLIN CROWLEY
SOAKING rain across much of the Darling Downs in November has helped transform the countryside from bone-dry brown to lush green, with spirits lifting alongside commodity prices to end what’s been a tough year for farmers on a more positive note.
While last month’s downpours were a godsend for areas around Dalby and fire-ravaged parts of the Western Downs, producers like Belinda Callanan (main picture) at Nobby are still waiting for significant falls, finding themselves in a “green drought”.
While her property on the eastern Darling Downs recorded 65mm in November and 380mm rain for the year so far, that’s roughly just half of what the area’s annual average.
Callanan told the Caller, she’d like to have cattle at her Nobby property and be looking at planting a summer cash crop but instead, she’s had to de-stock and wait for a change in the weather.
“You might drive on the highway and you see it green on the sides of the roads, but in about 10 kilometres, it could be extremely dry still,” she said.
“So one neighbour can get it and the other neighbour might miss out. There’s a lot of people that have missed out, or haven’t had quite the right amount of rainfall.
“Here, we haven’t had enough rainfall to give us a good more moisture profile so we can’t really do anything until we get more rain.”
It’s a different story for Bowenville grower Kim Bremner, who has been working flat out to capitalise on around 170mm which fell on his farm last month.
“It was magnificent rain, it was soaking rain – couldn’t be better,” he told the Caller.
“The biggest issue now is trying to get all the weeds under control, so we’re busy doing that – spraying and cultivating.
“We’ve got cotton in – we’ve down probably 50 percent on what we planted last year, but last year we had full ring tanks. Given how dry it was I think we should have cut back by another 50 percent.
“Even though we’ve had 170mm, another 100 would really help and for all those people who didn’t get the amount that we got, they need that 100.”
Bremner said there was a lot of excitement within the farming community when initial weather modelling showed ex-tropical cyclone Jasper bringing heavy rain to Southern Queensland, but hope of moisture from that system has now dried up.
“The Bureau said El Nino, then a month ago they said maybe neutral – who knows what they’ll come up with next,” Bremner said.
“I think there’s a fair bit of confidence out there because we’ve had a couple of good years, most farmers have had a chance to pay down debt and things have been pretty reasonable.
“The winter crop that had no rain on it went surprisingly well – every farmer I talk to with a winter crop was pleasantly surprised by the yield, it was well above their expectations.
“Your wheat and your barley have both done exceptionally well on the Downs, so most farmers are pretty happy with the crop they got for that.”
“Farmers are the eternal optimists so I’d have to say it was mostly positive on the Downs at the moment.”
Just 42mm fell in the official Dalby gauge between June and October this year, 120mm less than the long term average.
Toowoomba has recorded just over 500mm rain for the year so far, well under the long term average of 725mm.
While the wait for summer falls continues, Belinda Callanan said it had been great to see commodity prices lift in recent weeks, as it had been looking grim for cattle producers a month or two ago.
“I personally think there is a little bit of confidence because the cattle market has kicked a little bit, and that’s possibly because of the rain that we have had,” she said.