IT fell from the sky but wasn't the sort of moisture Tony Romeo was looking for.
A hail storm last Sunday afternoon smashed his apricot orchard in Pozieres, outside Stanthorpe, which he share-farms with his father-in-law Bruno Stefanon.
Medium-sized hailstones peppered the property bringing down hail netting and pummelling fruit that was close to being harvested.
"We weren't expecting it - it just came all of a sudden and
that was it," Mr Romeo said. The hail decimated a selection of apricot and plum trees outside the protective netting. Mr Romeo estimated only 10 per cent of that unprotected fruit remained.
"It's not worth looking after anymore, put it that way," he said.
"Most of the netting came down. So what was under the netting is damaged as well now."
Large mounds of hail remained on the site when the Queensland Country Life called in on Monday.
Mr Romeo's main farm at Severnlea, south of Stanthorpe, was unaffected but he said he felt sorry for harder-hit growers west of Pozieres.
"Those poor guys have lost a fair bit of their structure as well as their netting," he said.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast possible storms for the Stanthorpe area this week with showers included.
A hail storm wiped out a 140 tonne cherry crop this month at Millthorpe in the NSW central west.
"We are battling with the drought, and now we are battling with the hail storms so I don't know what the next story is - probably the flying foxes," Mr Romeo said.
"I'd just like to see a bit of general rain." He said he had enough water to see him through but the recent warm stint had
made him use more than expected early on in the season.
