AS the CBH Group announced the official close of harvest last week, all minds were turning to planning, whether that be shearing or seeding.
As farmers work out what needs to be done, rainfall and temperatures will once again become key in when to sow.
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At the end of January the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) released a three-monthly look ahead at what Western Australian farmers can expect for rainfall and temperatures.
February to April is set to follow a similar pattern to that seen for the past few months.
According to BoM duty forecaster Jessica Lingard, WA has been showing a higher chance of exceeding its average maximum temperatures down the west coast since October.
"In October that was the first time we published an outlook showing December having an unusual warming, or predicted a warmer season for the west coast," Ms Lingard said.
"That's really what we've had this past summer with these really persistent and consistent west coast troughs, the west coast of the State has been unusually warm."
The BoM outlook confirms that in the next three months there is a high chance of exceeding the average maximum temperatures along the west coast.
"That suggests that we're going to see more of these west coast troughs, perhaps some more heat waves, those sorts of really dry conditions like we've been experiencing for the past few months," Ms Lingard said.
It won't be WA alone, with this trend likely to be seen in both minimum and maximum temperature across all Australia.
"If we have a look at the minimum temperatures this is where we see a very significant signal across the entire country, for both the February to April outlook and the March to May outlook," she said.
"The entire country is going to be experiencing warmer than average overnight temperatures."
Ms Lingard also said that if the minimum temperatures were higher that could mean having more heat waves, as overnight temperatures are a huge contributing factor.
"In WA and down the west coast that links in with these west coast troughs, those strong north easterly winds where the temperatures don't really seem to drop much below 20 degrees, if at all," she said.
When it comes to rainfall, according to BoM, parts of inland WA were likely to receive below average rainfall from February to April.
For the growing regions, Ms Lingard said there was a 50 per cent chance of an average rainfall season.
"We are not expecting anything particularly dry, but we're not expecting it to be excitingly wet either," she said.
"It's going to be an average season, we are not getting signals for either a dry season or a wet season.
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"Unlike when you look over at the east coast, they have a significant signal for a wetter than average upcoming three months but that's because we are in La Nina, however that doesn't really affect WA."
Which should be a good sign for farmers, who can hopefully plan to the averages and not have any surprises around the corner.
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