Riverina fears 100,000 tonnes lost to frost

Vineyards in the Riverina region in New South Wales were “decimated” by a minus three-degree frost in the early hours of this morning with an estimated crop loss of 100,000 tonnes.

“Damage reports have been coming in with total wipe-outs of some blocks, in particular the early whites, but even red varieties have been considerably affected,” the Riverina Winegrape Growers said on Facebook.

“While it’s too hard to estimate the total crop loss at this stage, it’s likely to be more than 100,000 tonnes for the region.

“Making this the third year in a row where growers have battled significant weather events with losses of more than 100,000 tonnes.”

Vineyards in Clare, the Barossa and the Riverland have also been damaged by frost with more worrying low overnight temperatures to come this week.

Adelaide recorded its coldest September morning ever on Tuesday – 1.3 degrees at 5.40am.

It is just another challenge for an industry facing an overwhelming number of challenges.

Vineyard damage in the Barossa. Photo: Steve Lindner.

Barossa grower Steve Lindner, who is also general manager of operations at Turkey Flat Vneyards, posted a frost-damaged vine on Instagram.

“Viticulture 101, this is not what a vine is supposed to look like in spring,” he said.

“Luckily Turkey Flat was not too bad, and my block is pretty insignificant when it comes to the big picture of others.

“What is going to happen tonight we have every part of our anatomy crossed, frost fans topped up and praying!”

Frost fans have been working overtime in the Barossa and some growers lit fires for protection.

There were several other reports of frost damage in the Barossa and it appears to be widespread.

Grower Adrian Hoffman told the ABC, “It’s been quite devastating, considering we’ve got quite a bit of frost mitigation [strategy in place] and we’ve been frosted quite severely under frost fans.

“Generally once [the temperature] gets down that low, the damage is quite extensive.”

The Riverland was also hit hard.

Ashley Ratcliff from Ricca Terra said on LinkedIn that “unfortunately one of our vineyards was completely wiped out… ouch”.

“Despite having a frost fan in place and doing what we could to mitigate the risk (late pruning; hand pruning was still to be done) and keeping soils clean of trash, we were whacked,” he said.

“Fortunately this damage was limited to around 18 acres. The rest of our vineyards look great.”

On Monday afternoon the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has issued a frost warning for the Mount Lofty Ranges, Mid North, Riverland and Murraylands districts.

“Please be aware that temperatures at ground level can be many degrees lower than those recorded by standard weather stations, especially in calm conditions with clear skies,” the BOM says.

The temperature in Nuriootpa is forecast to drop to zero on Tuesday morning and three degrees on Wednesday.

The forecast for Renmark is zero overnight on both Monday and Tuesday.

Mildura in Victoria is also forecast to drop to zero on Tuesday morning and three on Wednesday morning.

Main photo: Vineyard damage in the Riverina. Photo: Riverina Winegrape Growers.