Even the family car in the garage wasnt safe, receiving a broken rear windscreen.
Back at the end of February, Cohuna dairy farmer John Keely had been closely watching the radar.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
By night, he knew there was a storm coming, but as the storm hit and the lightning and rain intensified, he decided to get up and have a look out the window.
And he couldn’t believe his eyes.
He knew from the home camera there was a tree down near their garage, he didn’t know the tin from his former machinery shed was now strewn across the yard, the rear windscreen on his car was shattered, and a hay shed in one of his paddocks had taken flight and now rested 140 metres from its original position.
The hay remains, but the shed landed 140m away.
And there were trees down everywhere across the farm.
“I have never seen anything like it in my life,” John said.
“The rain was bucketing down — we had 28mm in less than half an hour. There was lightning, such strong winds and all the gutters were overflowing.
The machinery shed was now located in the backyard.
“When we looked outside, the corrugated iron was flying past the back door. ”
He said over that particular week, the farm ended up receiving an unheard of 178mm of rain.
The Cohuna dairy farm was hit by a freak storm in February which left a path of destruction.
John said the morning after the storm he was pretty nervous to head out and check on the nearly ready to be harvested corn crop, but to his surprise it had remained undamaged.
“It was as good as gold,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe the hay shed — it had footings 2ft by 2ft and 18 inches deep, and they were just lifted out of the ground.
“Tree branches were down everywhere and we will be cutting up and selling firewood,” he laughed.
John said he and his son Harrison had thankfully moved the cows off the feed pad and into a sacrifice paddock in preparation for the rain.
“We had a bit of lucerne we were able to put the cows on across the road, because of course, the mixer wagon was out of action at the same time, so they needed something to graze,” John said.
He said the dry cows had to be moved from the calving paddock because that too was under water.
He said the storm and the consequent rain knocked production, but thankfully the cows were picking back up again.
“The mixer wagon is fixed and the cows are back on the feed pad — they hated the humidity, that zapped them as well,” he said.
He said on a positive note, the farm couldn’t have asked for a better start to autumn.
“The soil moisture is spot on and the ground has now had a really good soak.”
He said while rain totals varied across the district, it did save many farmers from the hideously expensive temporary water market.
“Water prices were getting ridiculous – they were up around $540 a megalitre, and now they are down to $420, and hopefully they will keep falling,” John said.
“This rain will also help those people who had a bit of water left — it will now go a lot further which is great for the industry.”
And to add to an eventful week, John said had a bowls grand final to play on the Sunday at Kerang — it rained so much and wasn’t letting up, they had to move the game to an undercover facility at Barham.
“It rained all day, and even when some of the team came back to my place afterward to commiserate our loss by two shots, it was still raining.
“The whole week was just something I have never experienced in my whole life ever before,” he said.
26°C