Hailstorms hit farmers again
Ferocious storms hit the south-west land division on Monday, causing crop damage and delays to harvest across many parts of the Wheatbelt.
Hail was reported in the Shires of Wongan Hills, Cunderdin and Corrigin, with wind speeds of 104km/h recorded at the Cunderdin airfield.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning on Monday afternoon, following harvest bans and hot weather in many Shires in the central Wheatbelt.
Rainfall recordings throughout the affected areas included 22mm at Yorkrakine, 19mm at Wongan Hills, 18mm at Cadoux and 14mm at Dalwallinu.
Wongan Hills farmer Duncan Holme said his property had been hit twice by two separate hailstorms on Monday afternoon an hour-and-a-half apart.
"The funny thing about it was that it hit the same piece of crop. The second storm followed the first storm exactly," he said.
"In between the two storms, we were out sawing logs off the road because there were trees that came down, but we had to stop when the second storm came through. The water has washed big gutters down our road."
Mr Holme estimated he had 70 per cent damage in three of his wheat paddocks.
He said they were only halfway through their harvest.
The Holmes received 31mm of rain, although they were able to continue harvesting on paddocks only 11km away.
"Where we were harvesting, it didn't even rain, and so it was obviously very isolated," he said.
"The hail punched holes through our flyscreens on the windows. The stones were about two-thirds the size of a golf ball.
"I had one paddock out in the first storm that looked like Mt Hotham - it was just white."
Mr Holme said this was the first hail claim he had submitted since the family began cropping the property in 1939.
Nearby farmer Peter Whitfield said he felt fortunate to have escaped the brunt of the weather.
"We were really on the outskirts. The east of our property was affected the most and even there just received about 5mm of rain," he said.
"It meant the paddock I was harvesting was too wet so I had to move to another, but we were lucky that it really hasn't affected us otherwise."
Further south, Narrogin Planfarm agronomist Hilary Wittwer said thunderstorms delivered about 5mm-7mm of rain, halting harvest in the area stretching from Kojonup to Brookton.
"Fortunately this has not been enough to affect the quality of crops, but it has slowed down harvest," she said.
According to the Grains Industry Association of WA, harvest was well advanced in the Geraldton and northern Kwinana zones and was starting to ramp up in the Esperance and Albany zones.
Early grain quality reports indicate that, for most of the crops in the grainbelt, wheat protein levels and screenings were meeting expectations, while canola crops were averaging 46 to 48 per cent oil.
GIWA is estimating the total WA grain crop at 13.8m tonnes.
According to GIWA, quality downgrades could occur from sprouting and low falling numbers in wheat, poor colour in barley and sprouting and yield loss in canola following wet weather in October.
Regions at risk of weather damaged grain include the Moora district, the central grainbelt, the Lakes region and the wider Esperance region.
The Geraldton port zone did not receive significant rainfall, while the lower Albany port zone crops were mostly green enough to not suffer quality problems, although some hail damage and lodging was apparent in crops in the Frankland district.
In the Esperance port zone, despite the rainfall in October, barley deliveries were meeting colour grade specifications, to the relief of local growers.
Meanwhile, CBH grain operations manager Brett Jeffrey said in many areas yields were not meeting expectations.
"We are hoping that this is not consistent through the southern Kwinana zone and the Albany zone for growers in those areas, where more consistent rainfall events occurred throughout the year," he said.
