Darling Downs farmer Nick Adamson says the long term positive benefits of flooding are pretty well immeasurable, but the immediate impact of lost crops, wrecked fences and eroded paddocks make for plenty of pain and hard work in the meantime.
Mr Adamson, who at farms some 1400 hectares on Stillwater on the banks of the Condamine River at Ellangowan with his wife Ronnie and son Eli, said given the amount of rain that had fallen they wouldn't be back on the waterlogged black soil country before the end of the month.
"That's what you get for living on a floodplain," Mr Adamson said.
"There's no doubt the flood water will do a lot of good for this country, but it has certainly brought us to pretty well brought work to a halt until we can get back out and about."
Three floods have resulted in significant challenges including the loss of half a barley crop, costing the business about $300,000.
"We were able to get about half of the crop harvested, but the rest was a write-off.
"There's also plenty of fencing that needs to be done and we'll be planting more pasture in the areas that were effectively waterways during the floods."
Mr Adamson said he had long been concerned that prolonged wet weather could severely impact on the grain and cattle business.
That thinking saw the Adamsons buy the 650ha Leyburn property Brooklyn, which is used to run Dorper sheep.
"We were often thinking about how we could diversify our business and thank goodness we did," Mr Adamson said.
AgForce Grains president Brendan Taylor said it was difficult to estimate but 30-40 per cent of the Darling Downs sorghum crop could still be standing in paddocks.
"There's plenty of farmers saying they need six weeks of warm, sunny weather just to dry the place out," Mr Taylor said.
"The main challenge right now is the trafficability of the paddocks.
"Until we can get harvesting equipment in action we really won't know what the situation is."
The widespread rain has already put upward pressure on prices with sorghum worth $320-$330/tonne ex-farm this week. However, sprouted grain is copping a $40-$50/t discount.
There is also concern about the estimated 125,000ha area planted to mung beans across Queensland northern NSW.
"A lot of bean crops were at the point of harvest," Mr Taylor said. "Again we won't have a clear picture on where we are until the headers get going and beans start getting graded."
Source - https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au
