Pineapples and dragon fruit are fruit synonymous with summer, but even these tropical crops have been suffering in Queensland's blistering heat.
"We do a lot of praying, we're praying for rain all the time," said Bruce Wallace, a dragon fruit and sugarcane farmer from Bundaberg.
He had predicted a yield this year of roughly 40 tonnes of fruit, but said the hot and dry conditions over summer mean they might lose 20 per cent of their crop.
"The dragon fruit is suffering. We were hoping to have quite a good year this year but it's rapidly turning to shit," he said.
"We've had high temperatures, and we're basically at the back end of our wet season and we've had nothing – it could be the driest february on record," he said.
Pineapple farmer Les Williams said while farmers are used to tough weather conditions, the unusual stretch of hot weather has been more difficult than usual.
"That's the paddock we play in," he said.
"But this year's been tougher because of the extended hot period.
"Consistently hot weather throws you more problems than the occasional hot day."
From Wamuran at the southern end of the Glasshouse Mountains, Mr Williams said one way pineapple farmers protect their crops from the heat is by using sunscreen.
"It's a white talcum powder we use, its freshly ground up clay, we spray that on them," he said.
"But people see the white power on them and think it's something nasty and awful so it's an impediment to sales."
While the sunscreen is fine for the smooth pineapples destined for Golden Circle cans, the gold pineapples for the supermarkets prove trickier to protect.
"We did cover some of ours with paper bags and shredded paper, but that's very labour-intensive and quite expensive to do," Mr Williams said.
"This year we've been fortunate ... for whatever reason pines are sitting lower in the plant so they've been shaded from the sun, but any gaps in the crop canopy is like putting a magnifying glass on the crops."
At Mr Wallace's dragon fruit farm in Bundaberg, earthen-based sunscreen is also a crop-protecting option but he said its usefulness is limited.
"Sunscreen only works to a certain degree, the top part of the fruit gets a greater hit of sunscreen which interferes with photosynthesis and pigmentation," he said.
While the lack of humidity has kept fungal problems at bay, Mr Wallance said that combined with high temperatures has meant his dragon fruit plants are stressed.
"When a plant is stressed it just shuts down to defend itself, and the produce it does put out is smaller, the product is diminished, and we can't get the heat out of the fruit quick enough," he said.
The other problem for those farming in hot and dry conditions is the higher cost of power and water, thanks to the extra irrigation required just to keep the plants going.
"It means power bills double or triple, water bills double or triple," Mr Wallace said.
"The nickname for irrigation is 'irritation', you're constantly monitoring things and moving things."
Mr Williams, who is also the chairman of Growcom, said he knows plenty of other farmers in south east Queensland struggling with the cost of watering their fruit and vegetable crops.
"They've been irrigating because it's been hot and dry, and the water has been evaporating because it's' been hot and dry," he said.
The heat also makes it tough on the fruit pickers and farmers working outside on hot days.
"It's very hard to send someone out in 42 degree heat to pick your crop," Mr Williams said.
"Unfortunately you can't always hide in an airconditioned tractor."
Both farmers said all they can do is grin and bare their losses from summer, and keep plugging along.
"It's part of the risk of the business and we've got to adapt to it," Mr Williams said.
"Farmers are supreme optimists," Mr Wallace said. "We put shit behind and get on with the next lot."
This story first appeared on the Brisbane Times.
Kim Chappell
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
