THE drenching eastern Australia has received in the past two months has slashed about $700 million from the grain harvest.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences says the losses - caused by crops being wiped out or downgraded from human quality to stock feed - come on top of a $1 billion write-down in the value of the wheat harvest it assessed in December, after severe rain and floods damaged crops in November and the first half of December.
But despite the savage impact of Mother Nature on some grain growers this harvest, the season has produced bumper crops and set many new harvest records, including a record national wheat crop (26.3 million tonnes), a record Victorian wheat crop (4.1 million tonnes), and a record Victorian canola crop (450,000 tonnes).
The results have left agricultural leaders wondering about how good the harvest could have been if not for the massive rainfall.
Paul Morris, deputy executive director of ABARES, said the unusual summer had produced a ''mixed picture'' for farmers growing grain and other winter crops. To examine the impact of rains and floods on farmers over the two months since the last forecasts were released, ABARES took the unusual step of conducting a telephone survey of 380 grain growers.
''Some have lost crops and been devastated. Others have got the best crop ever. It's really been quite an amazing story this year,'' he said.
''It's just amazing some of the yields they've been getting,'' he said.
The latest ABARES Australian Crop Report shows wheat growers in New South Wales and South Australia achieved record yields.
Production figures for NSW illustrate the extreme year. NSW farmers grew wheat on 5 per cent less land this season than last yet produced twice as much wheat this year - a record 10.6 million tonnes. This figure itself is 1.1 million tonnes lower than ABARES' previous forecast for NSW released in December.
Russell Amery, president of the grains group of the Victorian Farmers Federation, said many growers had experienced a frustrating harvest.
''Sadly, it's the year that for a lot of us looked like being the year to get us out of trouble. And as a result of the November and January rainfalls it's turned it into an ordinary year and even a loss year for some,'' he said.
''In my district we were two days off having one of the best harvests we've ever had, probably the best harvest. That's how close it was to putting the headers in the paddock, and it just all turned pear-shaped from there.''
Other key findings of the ABARES report include:
■ Total winter crop harvest for 2010-11 nationwide is estimated at 42.1 million tonnes, the biggest since 2003-04.
■ Victorian winter crop production is estimated at a record 7.9 million tonnes.
■ Heavy rain and floods over the past two months have slashed about $200 million from the value of the Victorian grain harvest.
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