Harden Shire Councillor Tony Flanery of ‘Lowlynn’, Galong appeared on Saturday evening’s National Nine News. The segment centered around a report regarding El Nino weather patterns, which affect the wheat harvests each year. Parts of Harden Shire experienced varied yields in 2015.
Interviewed by channel nine correspondent, Lizzie Pearl, Flanery was jovial after hearing that Cunningar would be receiving 2.5 million dollars in federal funding for an upgrade at the grain terminal. Flanery and a large group of supporters had helped to ensure the project went through.
Councillor Flanery who was a key player in obtaining the grant, was chosen to reflect the concerns that are currently taking place among farmers in the area known as the centre of the best wheat growing area in Australia.
The report commenced with news anchor Deb Knight introducing the following: ‘The harvesting machines will soon fall silent across regional Australia as farmers take stock of the year that was. It was a season full of promise, but our farmers are once again counting the cost of hot, dry El Nino conditions stripping millions of dollars from crops across the country’.
It then crosses to Pearl who is with Flanery as he is harvesting in one of his paddocks on a header. Pearl says “We’re harvesting on Tony Flanery’s property. He’s desperate to get the crop off, this is the one time of the year when farmers don’t want rain. It slows the machines down or causes significant damage.”
The focus turns to Tony who adds: “It’s hard for farmers to be happy with the season, no matter what you ask a farmer. They either want it to stop raining or they want rain, so. If we can get a couple of weeks of dry weather, you know, hot, dry conditions that’d be fantastic,” he says.
The report then takes the home viewer inside the cab of the header whilst Flanery explains the modern technology including a computer program and GPS tracking device, “which means that header basically steers itself”, Flanery says.
Pearl explains that “the crop is cut, milled and loaded before it’s even left the paddock, but all the technology in the world can’t control the weather and those two words which send a shudder down the spine of rural Australia, El Nino.”
“This year was forecast to be a bumper harvest, but a hot, dry spring including the warmest October on record, has slashed two million tonnes from the nations wheat crop, with it tens of millions of dollars. If you ask farmers what they’re nervous about, they’ll usually all tell you the same thing, the weather. Right now the El Nino weather pattern across Australia is classed as severe, on par with the records we saw in the early 80’s and late 90’s, bringing with it, hot, dry conditions and most of all uncertainty.”
Richard Knight from Rabobank adds his experience to the report. “Overall El Nino can mean reduction of the winter wheat crop of up to 25%, which can be quite dramatic, but he really dodged a bullet this year,” he says.
Pearl states that, “Crop yields are down this year, but the El Nino had the potential to reek much greater havoc. Farmers aren’t celebrating. The latest forecast says the hot, dry days will persist well into 2016″.
Showing some concern also regarding El Nino, Tony States: “If it’s an El Nino and it carries through into autumn and winter well then that’s not really what we want. So you’re looking at three quarters of a million dollars to put a crop in. You need the moisture there before you go and spend that money.”
The segment ends with reporter Pearl saying “bruised and battered, but not down or out, if there’s one thing Aussie farmers can do, it’s bounce back as footage of a kangaroo bouncing through the wheat crop appears.”
Watch the news clip with Councillor Flanery at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/12/20/07/14/harvesting-machines-fall-silent-across-regional-australia
