Victoria grain growers grapple with disease amid heavy rains and flooding

Central Victoria experienced an unusually wet winter in 2026, with heavy fog, freezing temperatures and successive rainstorms that filled water storages and averted water restrictions. The same weather left fields water‑logged, delayed post‑emergent spraying and heightened disease pressure on cereal and canola crops. Grain growers reported yellowing crops, rust in cereals and blackleg in canola, prompting the use of aerial drones for fungicide applications.

LKF Contracting owner Luke Felmingham said the latest system added about 15 mm of rain to areas that had already received roughly 70 mm in the Rochester, Elmore and Bendigo region. He noted that “there is disease everywhere this year” and that growers are hoping for a little more rain in the coming weeks while trying to avoid further delays.

Temperatures remained unusually low, with Bendigo recording a daytime maximum of just 9.2 °C on 27 July and an overnight minimum of –2.4 °C on 18 July, the coldest readings for the year so far.