The Murrumbidgee valley’s multi-million dollar winter cereal crop has dodged a bullet with minimal mouse damage and recent rain lifting grower’s spirits.

Up until the 19.2mm received at Narrandera on May 26, the winter crop had largely been dry sown with no rain falling in April.

The season-opening rains of 98mm in March have resulted in a metre of sub-soil moisture for emerging crops.

Frosts over the past week have checked growth in some crops.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Narrandera has recorded just 29mm in May compared to the long-term average of 38.2mm.

The rainfall for the year to date is 247.2mm – far short of the 314.4mm received in the same period last year.

The biggest fall of rain was recorded on March 21 of 40.2mm.

Temperatures dipped to an icy minimum of -2.4C on May 29 compared to Narrandera’s long-term average minimum for May of 6.3C.

Nutrien Ag Solutions Narrandera agronomist Dave Sergeant said the winter crop was 90 per cent sown in the Narrandera shire.

“The rain we had last week was absolutely fantastic as far as getting crops out of the ground and keeping it alive, and giving us moisture to finish off sowing,” Mr Sergeant said.“

We have some sub-soil moisture but need top soil moisture to get the crops up and established.”

Mr Sergeant describes the winter sowings as standard with farmers electing not to expand their cropping areas on the back of a bumper harvest.

He said grazing wheat, oats and canola had been sown on the early rain.

“Canola and lupins are coming through, and the remaining wheat and barley are anywhere from already out of the ground to still being sown,” he said.

“Emergence is a little patchy as it has been dry. There are areas where moisture has been conserved over the summer with good farming practices like stubble retention and summer weed control, there has been reasonable moisture to get crops out of the ground.

“There has been a bit more canola sown than previous years off the back of exceptional prices and sub-soil moisture. Everyone was pretty nervous last week but that rain gave everyone a lot of confidence. The Bureau is talking a few showers this week and hopefully we can get that to help the crops recover from the savage frosts over the past few days. The frost won’t kill anything but will definitely use up a little bit of moisture and knock around some of the smaller crops.”

Mr Sergeant said mice damage had been minimal with some baiting carried out.

“There has been quite a lot of baiting going on over the last six weeks – the damage has been sporadic but is worse in some paddocks than others,” he said.

“People have baited on an as-needs basis really.”

Barellan grower David Irvin was putting in the last few paddocks of wheat and field peas early this week.

Mr Irvin has sown 405ha of canola, 1214ha of wheat and 120ha of field peas.

“We reduced our canola from 810ha as the second rain didn’t come quick enough we dropped it off, and swung over to wheat – the wheat prices are pretty handy,” he said.

“It has been a good start to the season with sub-soil moisture and a perfect 100mm of rain in March.

“Before the 12.5mm last week, we were dry sowing. Canola is running a little late but hopefully we will get some wet weather and no frosts so it can catch up.”

Mr Irvin said mice had been a problem in isolated areas, targeting grain storage bags in the paddocks.

“We have baited around the grain bags but in the field they haven’t been a problem,” he said.

“There are isolated areas of mice baiting in the Barellan area but generally we have been lucky.”

The promising cropping outlook and buoyant land values have resulted in three blue-ribbon corporate holdings in the region hitting the market in the same week.

Boasting 16 km of river frontage, the 3236ha Brewarrana station at Narrandera features 554ha of flood irrigation development, 2916 megalitres of Murrumbidgee River general security entitlements, and 174 supplementary water entitlements.

The property has an estimated carrying capacity of 25,000 dry sheep equivalents with the scope to carry 8000 ewes and 400 cows.

This is the first time the property has been offered in 36 years by Brewarrana Holdings Pty Ltd, with offers reputedly in the range of $16-$20 million expected.

Riverina icon, Tubbo Station at Darlington Point has been listed by LAWD with expressions of interest closing on July 1.

Tubbo rates at 39,000 dry sheep equivalents, and has 539ha leased to a solar farm providing $560,000 annual passive income.

The station boasts a 20km frontage to the Murrumbidgee River and an historic 23 stand woolshed.

Tubbo was last sold in 2010 by businessman Rodney Price to Les Douglas for $40 million.

At Griffith, the Ballandry Station aggregation of 26,945ha will be offered by expressions of interest closing on July 22 through Nutrien Harcourts.

The property has 45,457 megalitre water delivery entitlements, 24,000 tonnes of grain storage, and 21,852ha of arable country.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 3 June 2021.