LOCUSTS are damaging crops now and are a real threat for new season fodder supplies.
As well as in the Mallee, locusts are now making their presence felt in the western Wimmera.
Crops of emerging vetch around Nhill have been eaten but producers are optimistic they will regrow.
Despite this ongoing locust presence, some hay producers continue to sow their hay crops.
Many are gambling on cold weather and the insects disappearing by the time the crops emerge.
Fodder producers in southern NSW and western and northern Victoria will be the first exposed to any swarms this spring.
Northern Victoria producers are speculating on the timing of any swarms and how this will coincide with fodder conservation.
To avoid late hay making operations that could coincide with locust attack, producers are now actively considering making silage.
With an early cut of silage in September, producers hope they can store new season fodder up to 10 days earlier than hay.
This could be the difference between having available fodder and not for some of these farmers.
Mild conditions have enabled the final cut of lucerne in northern Victoria. With the use of preservatives, lucerne producers are increasingly being able to bale hay at higher moistures and sell their hay.
In previous years, conditions in autumn have not been favourable for drying hay and the last cut has often been conserved as silage for on-farm use.
Mild conditions have enabled a surge of growth of newly established pasture and cereal crops.
Irrigators in the Goulburn and Murray valleys have used allocations to pre-irrigate paddocks for forage production.
Dual-purpose cereal crops such as wheat have been grazed twice already around Numurkah.
Annual ryegrass crops, although slower to respond, are well established and are expected to produce a greater bulk of feed during winter and spring.
Since the big storms of early March, northern Victorian farmers have received little rain.
While there is subsoil moisture in many paddocks 100mm deep, hay oat crops are being sown into dry top soil and dust clouds are common sights on dryland farms.
Demand for hay from all areas remains low.
In southwest Victoria, dairy farmers are expecting peak calving in the first week of June.
There has been ample supply of pasture and fodder to feed dry cows until now and some cereal hay has been purchased to feed cows before calving.
