MALLEE and Wimmera farmers are rejoicing in some of the best spring rains for more than a decade and the prospect of a better-than-average harvest.
Big falls over the past week throughout north-west Victorian communities, including 73 millimetres at Ouyen over two days and steady amounts from Patchewollock in the north (47 millimetres) to Stawell in the south (36 millimetres), have raised spirits and coloured a landscape parched by a decade of drought.
Many farmers cite 1996 as the last really decent year for croppers.
"We've had years since then that have given us average rainfall, but nothing like this," said Leo Delahunty, a grain farmer at Murtoa, about 25 kilometres east of Horsham.
Timing is everything: rainfall has come in other years but fizzled out in the critical spring growing months. And even now, it remains difficult to generalise, with some pockets missing the deluge.
For those benefiting, however, "it's been one of the most timely spring rains they can remember", noted a spokesman for the weather bureau.
Andrew Broad, the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, added: "It's certainly shaping up as a very good season across the state, so it's a real blessing … The pay-cheque rain is the rain that arrives in September."
Mr Delahunty's farm is ablaze with flowering canola that stands up to 180 centimetres high, but his crops of wheat, barley, lentils and broad beans are also flourishing on the 3800 hectares that he farms with brother Andy and son Chris.
Already, Murtoa and neighbouring Horsham have received above-average monthly falls, backing up a better-than-expected winter that stands in stark contrast to the 19 millimetres that fell in the first three months of 2009. The happy convergence has prompted the Delahuntys to ratchet up their forecasts: they had budgeted for returns of about three tonnes of grain per hectare for their cereal crops and 1.4 tonnes per hectare for their lentil crop. But the improved conditions appear likely to lift these to 4.5 tonnes and 2 tonnes respectively.
"In terms of us getting a crop now, we're very comfortable," Mr Delahunty said. "If it doesn't rain in October we're still going to get quite a reasonable crop [but] there are so many 'ifs' and 'buts' in all of this."
But he added: "One of the real benefits this year, of course, is that for the first time in years we've started to get water into our storages in the Grampians. At the start of winter the capacity was down to 3¼ per cent. We're now up around 14 per cent."
The VFF's Mr Broad said average rain and cool conditions in October would put the icing on the cake. "At this stage, crops are trying to put up a head and fill those grains … Some nice cool days with plenty of moisture is what we need to assist that."
Mr Broad said that while the spring falls would benefit the entire agricultural sector, farmers in the irrigation belt were still wanting decent run-off into catchments so that they could access their water entitlements.
The sudden upturn in spirits for those on the land underscored the recent plight of farmers, according to Mr Broad.
Most had seen their farm equity dissipate through a decade of miserable seasons, and grain farmers were now facing the challenge of selling their crops in a newly deregulated market.
"But most importantly, farmers just want to be able to prove to themselves that they can grow a crop again, to restore their faith in the long-term future of agriculture in this country," he added. "What these rains are hopefully telling them is that there is a future."
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