By Anne Coffey

With the season shaping up with so much promise early in September the late frost on the 16th September, unseasonable cold for a number of hours, caused massive damage in the area.
Temperatures in the region as low as -3 degrees over several hours culminating in both frosted heads and a type of stem frost not seen in the past.
Canola seems to have been the hardest hit with some local farmers talking about 50 to 80 per cent affected, with pods shrivelled and softened.
Around the Melrose area some farmers are reporting a 50 per cent loss across the board, affecting canola, wheat and barley.
One farmer, northwest of Condobolin reported checking his wheat crop and finding heads filling with some very pinched grain and some full grains. However, the amount of pinched grain would seriously downgrade the sample. This should lift the protein, and as in other years, special grade may be created to take advantage of the protein yield.
Further south reports are coming in of up to 90 per cent losses in canola with many crops been cut for hay. Temperatures as low as -5 and -6 over quite an extended period has affected the development of the seed, shrivelling them in the pod.
In the grape regions the frost has done enormous damage, affecting the first budding and damage from 20 to 100 per cent reported depending on the area
The only bright spot for wheat growers in this scenario is that unaffected heads may compensate by filling with more grain having lost some of the competition through frost affected plants.
Despite the loss of predicted yields, on the 15th October, the CSIRO are still predicting a 9% increase in the national long-term average for wheat.* *Australia wide Wheatcast™ wheat yield forecast, 15 October 2024.