Riverina farmers pick up the pieces after floods cause crop losses, animal deaths

Some growers are believed to have lost 100 per cent of their crops due to the wild weather conditions, while hundreds of dead animals have been reported on other farms.

Riverina Winegrape Growers chairman Bruno Brombal said the region has lost between 20 and 50 per cent of its grape crop due the floodwaters.

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"The impact of the flood was astronomical in this region," Mr Brombal said.

"Because of the heavy rain and the floodwaters, growers just couldn't get in to put a spray on to save the grapes, so they just deteriorated."

The extent of the damage varies from property to property, but Mr Brombal said some farmers have undoubtedly lost everything.

"There is 100 per cent loss in our region. There are some growers who won't be harvesting anything this year," he said.

Growers with surviving grapes are currently carefully managing the crops ahead of what is expected to be a late harvest.

But the state of affairs in the winegrape industry means there still isn't much to look forward to for those with healthy crops to collect.

"The prices we were offered for our grapes a few months back were just ridiculous," Mr Brombal said.

"They were way below cost. It wouldn't have even been worth looking after your crops for the prices we were offered."

Mr Brombal said the situation has him worried about the mental health of some growers - especially those who have lost their entire crop.

"It's all really going to hit in April when some of these farmers get their bills coming in," he said.

"They're going to be hit pretty hard and I'm definitely a bit concerned about the mental health of some of the growers."

Louise Burge and her husband Andrew operate a 2800-hectare sheep and cropping farm about 25 kilometres east of Deniliquin, just off the Edward River system.

After months of preparation, their property was able to withstand two separate floods towards the end of last year.

But it was the third flood, which hit the region in mid-November, which proved devastating.

"It was catastrophic. In some parts of the farm the water was metres-deep," Mrs Burge said.

"We had 3000 sheep caught up, stranded on tiny islands across the creek which we couldn't get to."

Floodwaters completely covered wheat, barley, canola and faba bean crops on Mrs Burge's farm, resulting in "pretty significant" damage.

After weeks of helicoptering feed to their stranded sheep with the NSW SES, floodwaters finally receded enough for the couple to reach some of the animals in the past week.

"We've lost a lot of young lambs, a lot of the young ones have died," Mrs Burge said. "We haven't done a proper estimate but it would be quite a few hundred lambs that have died. Our ewes appear to be OK."

Mrs Burge said the damage has left a "huge emotional toll" on her family and many others in the Riverina, and it was particularly frustrating considering all the preparations they had made.

"We were as well-prepared for the flood as we could have been," Mrs Burge said.

"We knew it was going to be a high risk flood year and we just prepared flat-out. We crutched sheep we thought we wouldn't get to if it flooded, we put piles of dirt in different locations."

Mrs Burge and her husband had been campaigning for over a decade for water in the Murray Darling Basin to be better managed.

She said they "warned and warned" various levels of government that the current plan would increase the severity and frequency of floods - to no avail.

"We would have got floods this year - but they should have been manageable floods," Mrs Burge said.

"So we're angry and we're further disillusioned with the governments who co-manage the Murray River system."

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