RECENT rainfall has brought relief and joy to the local farming community, with cropping operations finally able to get under way and cattle producers buoyed by new confidence.
About 35mm in Wangaratta district and 58mm in Whitfield over the King's Birthday weekend came as a pure delight for producers, with cattle sales this week bringing a steadied market and renewed outlook.
It has been the latest start to a crop growing season in 20 years, but Bungeet cropping farmer Ashley Martin is happy the crops have sprung out of the ground thanks to steady rain over the weekend.
“We’re over the moon,” he said about the 25mm of rain they received.
The trigger for germination of crops sowed in about the third week of May is just what they needed.
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Wheat, canola and fava beans have been the mainstay in the Martins’ operation for decades and Mr Martin was pleased as it was the start of another growing season for them.
“We’ve got a long, long way to go and we don’t know what’s in front of us but we just need that rain with dry land farming.
“It was a later start than ideal but that’s farming for us and the seasons are not all the same."
The Martins went back through the record books and 2005 was a late start and the agronomist indicated with the right condition a reasonable harvest and yield is possible.
They sowed canola in early April but without follow up rain the plantings failed.
“We had quite a bit of rain in March with subsoil moisture and we sowed that but not all of it came up and it was a split germination and dried out too quickly," Mr Martin explained.
“Back then, we were anticipating that rain was coming and we tried to sow some in front of rain that didn’t eventuate and the rest of it was dry sown."
A spraying program has started already with the early canola, some weed they had to knock out, and a little bit of fertiliser went out last week because everyone was talking the rain up and Mr Martin said it was well worth it.
“For the tough start the whole of the state has seen we’re lucky to get what we did," he said.
"Fingers crossed the graziers can get some benefit but with the cold period now it’s going to be a struggle for them.
“Hopefully the season will keep ticking along and turn around."
Corcoran and Parker livestock agent Reiley Murtagh said "it's steadied everyone in their thinking" enabling producers to take a breath.
"It's stopped a bit of panic selling and it has loaded the ground with water and any person who has locked a lot of their land up away from cattle, they're in a box seat.
"They're still going to find some growth even through this cold period, they've sold cattle for pretty good money, and they can still buy cattle cheap enough to validate it.
"All the signs considering how tough it has been, are very, very positive."
Mr Murtagh said it's nowhere near doom and gloom and now is a really good opportunity to get into the market and heavy cattle are selling exceptionally well.
"There is no doubt that it has been the toughest people have had it for a long time but our road to success out the other side is getting very close.
Water storages have also been boosted with Lake Buffalo storage level sitting at 56.1 per cent (13,178ML) up from a low of 52.3pc in May.
Lake William Hovell is at 38pc or 5195ML, slightly lower than the May figure of 38.4pc.
