‘Crops underwater’: Victoria’s farmers on edge as flood threat rises

Fonterra Australia, a major dairy processor, said the situation in northern Victoria was proving challenging. “We’re working with the broader industry to get tankers up as many driveways as possible and pick up as much milk as we can,” a Fonterra spokeswoman said.

“Milk collections in western Victoria have so far not been impacted, although with rising waterways, the next 24 hours are a watch-out.”

Fonterra has notified farmers that they would continue to be paid for any milk that cannot be collected because of access issues due to flooding

While the worst of the state’s flooding has engulfed northern Victoria, grain growers in other regions are also experiencing significant water levels that are posing a threat to this year’s grain yields.

Andrew Weidemann, a Wimmera grain grower and southern region president of Grain Producers Australia, said crop losses were inevitable.

“But it’s very hard to gauge, at this point, how much or how little that might be,” he said.

“We are all a bit concerned about the forecast for this coming week, and how much more [water] that might bring.”

The Victorian Farmers Federation has called on the Andrews government to declare a natural disaster for the state’s flood-affected areas.

“These floods are already worse than what we saw in 2011, and the state has to declare a disaster before the federal government’s funding from the disaster relief fund kicks in,” Germano said.

“We need to ensure people out in the regions and on farms know that support is going to be there.”