The Bureau of Meteorology measured -2.5 degrees Celsius at its Westmere station, north east of Lake Bolac, which senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said classified it as severe.

“It was minus 2.5 degrees below freezing last Thursday, (which was) the coldest morning of the month at the Westmere station,” he said.

“We define a severe frost as below minus two degrees.”

Crop farmer Anthony Mulcahy has wheat, canola and bean crops in Streatham and said that while he was still assessing damage to the canola crop, over half of his wheat has had to be cut for hay.

However, Mr Mulcahy said the situation wasn’t too dire. 

“In a way we’re in a fortunate position in that we’re in a market for hay this year and it’s still worth a lot of money,” he said.

“There’ll be reasonable returns but a lot more work and expense doing it.”

Mr Mulcahy added that he’d heard hay prices sky rocket to $340 per tonne in recent months, compared to a third that amount just 12 months ago.

It may be a saving grace for frost affected farmers who get in early to cut their crops before the quality declines, Mr Mulcahy said. 

“It’s important to make those decisions early,” he said.

“I’ve been calling farmers in the district and they were saying that we were running out of moisture anyway, and there was a lot of heat forecast. The quality of the hay will drop quickly if we don’t act quickly,” he said.

“We’ve changed our harvesting methods and we’ve just got to deal with the circumstances we’re in and make the best of it,” he said.

Mr Carlyon said that it was unusual to have a late October frost but that increasingly dry conditions increased the likelihood of their occurrence. 

“Normally we’re getting toward the end of the frost season around mid-October but what tends to happen in these dry seasons is that you can get a (situation where) frost happens later in the year,” he said.

“The last few months have been quite dry and that means that there is just no surface moisture lying around the land. 

“That makes it easier for the temperature to fall quickly overnight and you’re less likely to have cloud or fog which can keep the temperature from falling at a great rate, and you end up with clearer skies.

“That allows the temperature to fall more quickly.”

Mr Carlyon described increased frosts and decreased rainfall as a “double whammy” for farmers.

Mr Mulcahy’s brother, Peter Mulcahy, also has a farm in the Streatham area and said that although his crops avoided frost damage,Thursday’s heat posed just as much of a problem as the frost during the ongoing dry conditions.

“Our crops sun a little bit later and if we could get some rain then it would be better, but our crops weren’t in that susceptible stage. but we justt can't get that rain,” he said.

“They forecast rain and it doesn’t eventuate.

 “That's as damaging as the frost when there's no moisture.”