Victorian hay and fodder specialists are still trucking hay nearly 900km north to drought-affected farms around Tamworth and Walcha, even as their own crops begin to thrive after a welcome autumn break.

Beck Wolfe, who farms at Timmering in northern Victoria with husband Joel and 14-year-old son Jaxon, said demand from northern NSW remained strong despite some recent rainfall in the region.

“We are still delivering hay there for various customers,” she said. “They have had some rain but it is not going to produce feed for them at this stage in the season.”

The Wolfe family are fodder specialists, operating across both dryland and irrigation in the Goulburn-Murray system.

Beck said 45mm of rain during the past 10 days had given the season a boost and it was the ideal set-up to the season with crops emerging and looking well.

The property had vetch, wheat, oats and barley in the winter program, with the vetch, sown on May 5, having already emerged and looking good. Beck said there was always an option of either taking crops through to grain or cutting them for hay. However, the vetch was being grown for hay.

“It has come out of the ground really well,” Beck said.

“It is a lot better than what it looked like at the start of sowing.”

She said the operation was set up to respond to whatever the season delivered.

“We are set up so that if we don’t get the moisture needed we can cut for hay,” she said.

The family also grows irrigated lucerne and has the option of irrigating wheat and oat crops later in the season if needed.

Beck said mild conditions and warm soil conditions helped along with the rain.