How the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could impact Wimmera farmers

Wimmera farmer Andrew Weidemann and the southern regional director for Grains Producers Australia agreed with the concerns.

"There is a high dependence for the usage of the ports out of Ukraine and Russia for wheat," he said.

"For the sanctions on exports around the world that means we could be looking at a bigger opportunity for Australian grain.

"We'd rather not see price rises on commodities because of the war."

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Mr Weidemann said should Australia have a bad season for grain, the consequences could be global.

"This will potentially put pressure on global food supply for certain countries that would be relying on wheat being exported from Russia and Ukraine and essentially Australia will have to pick up that slack in terms of trying to ensure there is enough wheat in the global supply chain to feed the world," he said.

Mr Weidemann said most farmers would not focus on profiting from this incident.

"Most people would take a look at this and think nobody should profit from a war going on in another part of the world," he said.

"Generally Australian farmers are happy to trade on world parity prices when the world is operating as it should."

Another major concern Mr Weidemann said was fuel price and access to fuel, an essential to run any farm in the region.

"Grains Producers Australia have been working quite heavily for some time to make sure we have enough fuel," he said.

"We might also see an increase in cost of fertiliser and chemicals, and supply can be disrupted by this outbreak.

"There is quite a large amount of fertiliser that comes out of Russia into the world supply chain.

Mr Weidemann explained how a lack of fertiliser could impact upcoming crops.

"If you haven't got the right amount of nutrition in the soil, it doesn't matter how much rainfall you get, that can have huge impact in the overall yield," Mr Weidemann said.

Mr Weidemann said he hoped "cooler heads prevailed" in discussions on the other side of the world.

"At the moment we've seen an escalation in global trading markets," he said.

"Overtime that will settle to some degree. Our biggest focus is getting crops into the ground and let trade and the weather predict how much grain we might grow out of Australia to feed a world population that might not possibly have Russian or Ukrainian wheat trading for quite some time to come."

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