Grain farmers throughout the Goulburn Valley were watching the skies on Friday, October 4, as a long cold front crossed the state throughout the day, bringing much-needed rain with it.

For Corop grain growers Andrew and Cherie Freeman, it was a hope the heavens would open to get their wheat through the critical flowering stage.

“We’ve come off four great years, and with the rainfall we had in February, this year, that’s what has kept all these crops going and growing,” Mr Freeman said.

“We haven’t had a lot of rain this growing season, the spring has been pretty short for rain.”

The couple run their 1700-hectare property with sons Jeb and Hugh and manage two others, growing wheat and canola, with irrigated maize about to be sown.

Hugh recently bought a mob of 60 Australian white sheep, with lambs at foot, with the hope of selling them for meat.

“I think I’ll probably join a few of them again,” Hugh said.

“They clean up all the weeds and things like that, keep the forest down.”

Rain is still needed for the farm’s primary crops, with weed control a priority.

“You can really see the crops are hanging on from only that summer rain we got,” Hugh said.

“So summer weed control has been paramount in a year like this to get the crops as far as they have.”

The Freemans spoke with Country News two days before Friday’s rain.

Mrs Freeman said they were hoping for at least 10 to 12mm.

“We’re counting on a good rain coming; hopefully there’s more, but we’ll see,” she said.

The farm had no issue with frosts this year compared to past years and the Freemans have only once been forced to bale canola after failing to get a spring rain.

“That was similar to this year,” Cherie said.

“But we’re in a better position now compared to that, but like everything, you won’t know until you get there to harvest it.”

Cherie said the maize crop was something that helped spread income into the second half of the year.

“We thought, we lived so close to the backbone channel — it's a pity to not do something proper with our irrigation,” she said.

“But unlike dairy farmers, we’ve become opportunistic irrigators, because we don’t own a lot of high-reliability water.

“We also buy in temporary water, park over half of it then buy in the other half.”

Only once has the water price been too high for the family to profit from a crop.

“It was like $900 to $1000 a megalitre, and you can’t justify that,” Cherie said.

Andrew said in stark contrast in 2010, the family was forced to plough in 600 hectares of barley and wheat after too much rain.

“We thought, yes, these crops are the best we’ve ever grown,” he said.

“And then the sky fell out.

“We just couldn’t even get on the paddock — there was nothing to do.”

The family is savvy to the economics of the grain market and Cherie can explain international politics beyond just war zones.

“I think a lot of farmers probably feel in a bit of a position after having four years where we’ve had both high prices and good yields,” she said.

“We usually have had either good yields and low prices, or stuff-all with high prices; we’ve never had both.

“The Ukraine war has helped prices and who knows what’s going to happen with Iran now bombing Israel.

“But I don’t think people in Australia realise we really do need a strong America, economically, which sounds weird, doesn’t it?

“And you’ve got China, who seem to have pulled out of the Australian market, and you’ve also got Russia, who once upon a time would not have been a major player in the wheat market.

“They grow more than America does now and are dumping a lot of wheat on the market and keeping the price down.”

By mid-afternoon on Friday, the Freemans were upbeat and still watching the forecast, with more rain forecast on Saturday.

Hugh reported in 6mm; eight by Saturday night.

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Wednesday, 10th January 2024

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