More than 3,000 farm animals and more than 120,000 hectares of crops have been lost in the devastating Victorian floods.
The state government estimates about 12,000 farming properties have been affected and that 5,000 kilometres of fencing has been damaged and 50,000 tonnes of hay or silage destroyed.
This week the government announced further grants of $75,000 for primary producers and up to $25,000 for small-scale producers.
The floods, which started in mid-October, saw numerous rural towns and communities in Victoria's north and north-east completely inundated.
Floodwater from the Murray River and its its tributaries are still a threat.
Agriculture Victoria has set up an incident management team to help "address urgent animal welfare concerns, undertake impact assessments of farm businesses and refer urgent personal needs of farmers to the correct agencies".
Damaged dairies and disease fears
Rochester dairy farmer Dave Christie lost a large amount of his stored feed.
"We lost 82 hectares of lucerne, all the bottom bales of the hay shed," he said.
"It even went through the feed barn and destroyed all the bedding for the cows.
"We had our cows out on wet paddocks for five days while we cleaned it out and replaced all the bedding.
"Our lucerne was probably 3,000 rolls that we would've cut for the year, and we've lost it all."
Mr Christie has also lost animals and more will need to be sold to save feed for those that remain.
"We lost a few cows and we've had to sell some of the cows that got crook, they got mastitis and footrot," he said.
"We're selling our young stock at the moment and we'll probably drop some cow numbers till we can secure more fodder.
"We're still milking — we've still got a dry bed, so we're pretty good, but she's been a battle."
South of Rochester, grain grower Toby Acocks is still inspecting the full extent of the damage to his crops.
"We're optimistic we might get half of our crop, but as to how weather impacted it is, we're not going to know till we get into a header," he said.
"You go north of Rochester and the strip at least five kilometres either side of river is heavily affected.
"When you're farming on the river you go to expect floods at some stage and you can't really do much to stop that."
'Frustration and fatigue'
An Agriculture Victoria spokesman said the department made more than 6,000 telephone calls to farmers impacted by flooding.
It estimates about 900 head of livestock are missing as a result of the disaster.
"These numbers don't give the full picture of the damage and loss suffered that has occurred across northern Victoria or by individual properties, as this varies across location and industry," the spokesperson said.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano says the floods will have a serious financial impact.
"The number I was given was more than 127,000 hectares of impacted crops," she said.
"So yeah — it's huge and it's going to continue to grow.
"Those numbers will continue to grow."
Ms Germano welcomed the flood grants the government has offered, but said there was frustration among farmers about how long it had taken to roll out assistance.
"What I'm hearing most is that there is just such a sense of frustration and fatigue," she said.
"If you've just lost millions of dollars' worth of crops or thousands of head of livestock, the $75,000 is not going to obviously cover that, but it goes some way to helping people to recover."
