THE dust has finally settled on many thirsty paddocks across the WA grainbelt, thanks to season-breaking rains that crossed the State late last week.
The cold front, that passed through the South West Land Division from Thursday night, brought an end to what has been a dry autumn across the region, and welcome relief to farmers who have progressed through large parts of their seeding programs, sowing into dry soil.
While rain gauges in some parts of the eastern Wheatbelt, Albany, and Esperance regions failed to fill to double digits, growers in the northern Wheatbelt, Central Midlands, Central Coast, Great Southern, and South West welcomed falls of up to 75 millimetres.
Badgingarra was among the wettest parts of the grainbelt, with the Bureau of Meteorology recording 50 millimetres over three days from Friday.
Local grower Andrew Kenny received 43mm on his property over the same time frame, as he neared the halfway point of his cropping program.
Mr Kenny said the downpour had renewed his optimism in the season ahead.
“We were confident given the forecast that we were going to get 20mm perhaps, but it was quite exciting to get even more,” Mr Kenny said.
“The rain was fantastic for the cropping, but it’s the sheep that have been frustrating, so it’s even better in that regard because we don’t have to feed sheep for as long perhaps.
“There’s a smile on both fronts from us.”
The rain also brought a smile to Jan Du Plessis, who works on one of four farms operated by J & AJ Brennan, located about halfway between Calingiri and Wongan Hills.
Most of this year’s cropping program had been sown dry prior to 24mm of rain that passed through on Thursday night.
On the promise of imminent rain, Mr Du Plessis and a contractor started sowing 600 hectares of barley on Thursday morning and got three quarters of it sown before it started raining that evening.
Early Friday they were back out on the machinery finishing the last 150 or so hectares when Farm Weekly briefly interrupted them.
“We’ve had 24 millimetres overnight which will get this (barley) away,” Mr Du Plessis said.
They had earlier dry sown about 1300ha of canola and about 2000ha of wheat which had been without a drink up until Thursday night.
“The canola and wheat hasn’t had any rain on it until last night and some of it has been in the ground for almost a month now,” Mr Du Plessis said.
“It has germinated, it’s above ground, but the canola is looking a bit lumpy.
“This (rain) will really get it going and fill in the gaps.
“But we will need a follow up.”
Mr Du Plessis said 6000 sheep were also on the property.
“This rain will bring up some green for them too so it’s really good to see,” he said.
Falls of 20mm or more Thursday night and Friday continued through to east of Wongan Hills, and while rainfall was about half of what farmers closer to the coast received, Wheatbelt farmers further east like Grant Hudson, Goodlands, were grateful.
“We got 10.5 millimetres overnight Thursday to Friday which we were certainly waiting for,” Mr Hudson said on Friday.
“We’ve been seeding for about three weeks, we’ve done about 4000 hectares so far and put in canola, barley and wheat.
“We put seed in dry and we’ve been waiting for the rain.
“We’ve still got 1000ha to go – 600ha of wheat and about 400 of barley.
“What we have put in is not out of the ground yet – that’s the critical bit, getting it above ground, once it’s up and growing it sort of looks after itself – but this rain will definitely get it away.”
Mr Hudson said soil moisture had been patchy following a good rain in February.
“When we were putting our canola in a neighbour was planting wheat and it came up, but we were seeding the canola shallow and there wasn’t the same moisture,” he said.
“We’ve got a block closer to town (Kalannie) and that’s had a fair bit of rain and it’s looking pretty good.”
Further south in Bruce Rock it was a similar story, and grower Josh Fuchsbichler welcomed between 9-14mm on the family farm as he approached the half way point of this year’s wheat program, with 500ha left to go.
It was the first rain on the property since an 8.5mm drop at Easter, and Mr Fuchsbichler hoped it was the start of a series of winter fronts to hit the region.
“We just hit double figures, it was a nice soaking-in rain,” Mr Fuchsbichler said.
“I have had a bit of a dig at the paddock I’m spraying and the moisture is down about two inches.
“A couple of weeks ago I actually stopped for four days while it was still dry, so it has given me a bit more confidence now that we’ve had the season opening rain.
“It’s now more of a case of are we going to get the follow up rains.”
Mr Fuchsbichler said the rain had been patchy in the region, with varying falls recorded and some growers disappointed in the system that eventuated.
Hyden grower Dean Baker said the situation was similar in the south east where many growers didn’t get the breaking rains they were anticipating.
Mr Baker said about 7mm fell on his property, which would allow the rest of the program to be sown into moisture.
“I can’t complain, it’s better than nothing,” Mr Baker said.
He said he was hoping for more rain as soon as possible, as he finished off 2018’s seeding program.
“It’s not looking that flash for the rest of the week but we’ll take anything.”
Rainfall figures were also modest further south in the Esperance region, where growers were lucky to receive 10mm.
Cascade farmer Rod King had 11mm on his property after finishing seeding a couple of weeks ago.
Mr King said only 0.8mm had fallen this month prior to last week and the rain was a welcome boost for the farm.
“We’re happy with that, we thought we were going to get less than that the way the forecast was and how windy it was, so it’s going to wet the furrows up quite well and germinate everything now,” Mr King said.
“Everything is looking fairly patchy, but this rain here should bring it all up.”
Meantime, there was a mixed bag of rainfall results in the Great Southern, which tackled gusty winds and several fires on Friday (see story Section 1).
Paul Hicks received 10mm on his Pingrup property, taking the annual rainfall on the farm to 64mm for 2018.
Mr Hicks said it had been a dry autumn on the farm, with only 16.5mm falling over April and May.
He said the rain had prompted him to ramp up seeding operations which were about 40pc complete on Monday.
“We’re seeding into moisture now, we’ve sort of been waiting for germination to control the weeds,” Mr Hicks said.
“Some people have nearly finished in the region and there are others that have been waiting for rain.
“We’ll be going for a few more weeks and are hoping there’s a chance we’ll get some more rain early next week.”
In Woodanilling, Bindi Murray was happy to see 16mm fall on the family farm.
Ms Murray said the rain had already led to significant improvement in the two thirds of the Woodanilling cropping program that was already sown.
“Some of the stuff that was looking quite sad before is responding really well after the rain, so it will be great to be able to push on with the rest of it with a bit more confidence,” Ms Murray said.
“Especially given that it was such a long dry spell at the start of the year, I know it’s only May but in terms of how it feels and how you would expect the paddocks to be, it’s actually in effect a much later break than that.”
She said she hoped the rain would be the beginning of a wet winter for all WA growers.
“There has been winners and losers but the thing I’m really hoping for is that it’s a change in the frontal systems that we get through and we’re moving from a blocking high situation to a normal frontal situation, that will be just fantastic,” Ms Murray said.
