Australia-Extreme heat damages potato crop.

AUSTRALIA-HEAT WAVE DAMAGES POTATO CROP.

Potato farmers in the Ballarat region are reporting massive crop losses as a result of last week’s heatwave.

Norm Suckling has a property near Creswick, north of Ballarat, and says much of his 65 hectare potato crop is ruined.

He estimates he will loose up to seven tonnes of potatoes per hectare but he won’t know for sure until harvest time in early April.

Mr Suckling says he irrigated his crops as much as he could during the heatwave, but it wasn’t enough.

"As hard as machinery and man could go and look, I think everybody was at their wits ends with it,’ he said.

He says many other potato farmers are reporting similar problems, which could translate to $350 million in lost profits come the April harvest.

"If you knew it was going to be like this in the first place I don’t know whether we’d have even started..."

Mr Suckling says the losses will have huge flow on effects on the local economy.

"It’ll have a big impact on Ballarat, it’ll have a big impact on the grower’s resolve," he said.

"Profitability of the job has probably dropped away to very little to nothing at this stage."

"Sooner or later the growers won’t be able to keep going.