Crops in the Mallee regions of South Australia, NSW and Victoria have all been hit by a series of frost events.

Some of the key hotspots for frost damage include Pinnaroo in SA, Kyalite in the NSW western Riverina and nearby Manangatang in the Victorian Mallee, where reports have been of up to 25-30pc damage.

VFF grains group president Andrew Weidemann said he had heard of farmers cutting crops for hay due to frost damage.

“There will be quite a few tonnes wiped off crops, and there is the potential for more damage if it gets cold in the coming weeks.”

Agrivision manager Kent Wooding, Swan Hill, said that while damage had been patchy, frost had definitely driven farmers to cut for hay.

“We’re advising our clients to make sure they have a market for the hay, but there’s definitely people there cutting because of frost – it is not because there hasn’t been enough moisture for the crop – there is frost damage there.”

AgFarm regional director Brad Knight said there had been three separate frost events.

“The first one was five or six weeks ago, then there was another one about two or three weeks ago, while the most recent one was on Sunday night.”

He said damage was primarily in the cereals, but Mr Weidemann said pulse producers in the Wimmera were concerned about damage from the most recent cold snap.

Mr Knight said it was difficult to assess the impact of the frost damage, however, overall, it didn’t look like markedly altering supply and demand in south-eastern regions.

“There’s no doubt this has been a really bad event for specific growers, but on a broader scale, so far, it has been relatively isolated.”

“The issue is that we have essentially had the dry conditions that lend themselves to frost over the past two months, so we are not out of the woods yet.”

Crops throughout the three states will be especially vulnerable to frosts over the next ten days to a fortnight.