THERE are smiles aplenty among district farmers after falls of between 20 and 40 millimetres of rain were recorded on Friday and Saturday night.
Most areas of the shire received close to an inch on the old scale on Friday, while storms topped up rain gauges early on Sunday morning.
At Benjeroop, Lindsay Schultz tipped out 22 millimetres on Friday and five on Saturday, bringing welcome moisture to his dry-sown crop and irrigated pasture.
“I’ve got a lot of dry sown oats and they’ve all struck and the moisture is nine inches (23cm) down,” he said.
“I watered all my pasture early April and this is as good as a second water.”
Murrabit dairy farmer, Andrew Leahy had the pick of the figures, measuring 24 millimetres on Friday and 12 on Saturday night, although he suspected the ferocity of the thunderstorm might have meant some rain didn’t make it into the gauge.
“It is very welcome after the Murray Goulburn (milk price cut) announcement,” he said.
At Barham, Neil Eagle received 26 and five millimetres, while Mead dairy farmer Di Bowles recorded 26.5 and nine millimetres.
“It will save second and third waterings and we should be able to carry over 100 megalitres of water,” she said.
Cohuna dairy farmer, John Keely recorded 32 millimetres across the weekend – perfect timing for freshly sown Wedgetail wheat which he had been about to irrigate.
Peter Tuohey measured falls of 22 and 11 millimetres at his property 15 kilometres east of Pyramid Hill.
“We had started dry sowing a bit and we will go full steam ahead now,” he said.
“This rain makes a huge difference to people’s confidence and the long range forecast is fairly positive.”
Falls were less in the western part of the shire, with Brett Hosking receiving 12.5 millimetres at Oakvale.
“It will get crop started and probably germinate some weeds to get a kill prior to sowing,” he said.
“It’s a nice early rain so it will boost farmers’ morale and give them confidence in the season.”
Leo Parker measured five and 16 millimetres, which he said would germinate the pasture, vetch and lupins already in the ground.
“We thought we would be sowing dry again this week so it’s a nice surprise,” he said.
“We had 90 millimetres in January so this rain should link it all up and hopefully we get some more this weekend.”
At Normanville, Geoff and Bronwyn Hunt recorded 23 millimetres on one part of the farm and 17 millimetres on another.
“Hopefully it is just the beginning because we’re starting a long way behind, having had three very dry months,” she said.
Like all grain growers, Mrs Hunt said sowing would be in full swing this week.
“As soon as it’s dry enough we will go like the clappers,” she said.
