Australia: Weekend rain changes Mid-West outlook

Nature can be the enemy or the friend of a farmer, and can change from one to the other, right before your eyes it seems. Farm Weekly spoke with Elders Northampton agronomist and Yuna graingrower Belinda Eastough at the end of last week about how crops were being affected by the high temperatures and lack of rainfall in the Mid West. Then the rain came and it came down hard. "Everything has changed dramatically up here," Ms Eastough said after heavy rain fell in the area. "We have been inundated with rain in the Geraldton region, so the narrative has changed, everyone is really happy considering we had a disastrous May." On their property, which is one kilometre west of Yuna, Ms Eastough measured 156 millimetres of rain in her gauge since June 1. "This property received 143mm for the whole of 2023," she said. "It is very wet, we've now had more rain in nine days than we had for the whole of 2023. "After two false breaks in May, we have now officially had a break in this region, so ...