RAIN, rain go away – all the farmers want to spray.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Well, it’s not that grim but rain on Friday after a week-long break has dashed hopes of many farmers desperate to spread fertiliser or herbicide on water-logged paddocks.
The number of rain days in May, June, July were all above the long-term average – with 25 in June and already nine registered for August, which averages 14 wet days.
“We’ve been doing a bit of urea spreading with the quad bike, which is ridiculous but we can’t get on the country any other way,” said Mark Lavery, who operates Mark’s Agricultural Services in Lavington with his wife Sally.
Many rural airstrips have been too wet to use, even all-weather strips, putting pressure on fixed-wing aircraft. “For a lot of the winter it has been an absolute standstill, it has been very, very difficult, and we’re far from the only one,” Mr Lavery said.
“The helicopters are making a killing.”
Steven Murray, who operates Albury-based Forest Air Helicopters with his parents John and Sue, said copters needed less than half a football field-sized clear space to land and a quick loading turnaround enabled pilots to cover a lot of area quickly.
“Generally our work doesn’t really start until September but we pretty much haven’t stopped since the end of June, flying anywhere from Cowra right down to here on the Border,” Steven Murray said.
His aircraft have been spreading urea as well as herbicide on cereal crops and fungicides for canola and Mr Murray was expecting to soon move into wheat rust prevention is the rain continues.
It is a similar story for Griffith-based Riverina Helicopters operators Gerry and Sally Wilcox.
Mr Wilcox said his core work was in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area but he did rust spraying work for clients around Henty and Culcairn.
“I’ve been spraying in Griffith for 18 years and certainly it is the longest wet period I’ve seen,” he said.
“It is a long time since we’ve had that really long, prolonged wet winter. It’s unusual, an unusual problem to have but a good problem to have.”
There has been 340mm of rain in Albury since May, and up to 50mm forecast in the coming week.
