3rd Heatwave In 2 Months Hammering Queensland Vegetable Farmers
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The third heatwave in two months has hit salad growers in Queensland's south hard, with many farmers battling to harvest 30 per cent of their crop. Farmer Clem Hodgman said he has been losing about 50,000 lettuces and 25,000 cauliflowers a week at his property near Toowoomba.
"The temperatures are so high, crops are burning off in the fields." He said while prices were rising in supermarkets, farmers would not reap the benefit as energy and water costs rose accordingly. "We don't want another summer like this for many, many years," he said.
But Rachel Mackenzie from farm lobby group Growcom said the heat could be the new norm. She said an industry study into heat impacts on the salad industry did not predict such high temperatures for another 13 years. "We were looking at 2030 in terms of when some of these thresholds would be reached," she said.
"This could be our new reality. We've had three years in a row where we've had significant heat, and we need to start saying what can we do to make sure we have the right [ways] to deal with this."
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-03/top-temp-records-tumble-darling-downs-heat-stroke-dog-death/8239080