Australia's best April rain in almost 10 years fell throughout grains areas at the weekend, setting off a race by farmers to plant winter crops and raising hopes that one of the worst droughts on record may be easing.
Good rain fell in wheat growing areas throughout South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales states the first rain in many areas since September last year at exactly the right time to plant winter crops.
"This might, just might, be the beginning of the end," Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Grant Beard said of Australia's long drought, which began in some areas in 1997, devastated farmlands in 2002 and returned last year.
Crops were slashed to one-third of their normal size in 2003 and 2006, and the government has estimated the drought will cut national GDP growth by up to 1 percentage point in 2006/07.
"The magnitude and extent of this rainfall is unmatched in April since 1998," weather bureau official Blair Trewin said. Total April rainfall of around 50 millimetres (2 inches) was common in the key eastern states of New South Wales and Victoria and in parts of South Australia.
Most fell in the last week. Some areas had their wettest April since 1974, Trewin said. "They'll be out there with their tractors fairly soon," Beard said. "This might be the start of a reasonable season.
At Coward, 250 kilometres (155 miles) west of Sydney in the heart of Australia's eastern wheat belt, farmer Chris Groves was preparing on Monday to begin planting winter crops after receiving 25 M&Ms (1 inch) of rain over the weekend. Some surrounding areas received twice as much. "It's been good rain. It's really just given us a boost," Groves said by telephone from his farm. "We will get started (planting) virtually straight away.
Everyone's in the same boat," he said. "At this stage everyone's very hopeful that it is near the end of the drought." John Ridley, chairman of the grains committee of Australia's biggest farmers group, the New South Wales Farmers Association, predicted large plantings of winter cereal crops would take place if more good rain were received.
"The long-range forecast is indicating a normal rainfall year, so let's keep our fingers crossed," he said from his property at West Whaling, 100 km west of Coward.
With livestock numbers well down after drought forced the sale of stock, farmers would look to cereals for a "quick quid". "Another 25 M&Ms in the next week or fortnight would be just what the doctor ordered to get a crop in and away in fine style," Ridley said.
Grains Council of Australia, which represents Australia's 35,000 wheat growers, said it would conduct a national survey in the next two days to gauge rain effects and planting intentions.
Australia is normally the world's second-biggest wheat exporter after the United States, and is one of the biggest farm exporters in the world, shipping around A$30 billion ($25 billion) worth of goods a year to mainly Asian markets. Planting of winter grains including wheat, barley and canola normally starts around the end of April.
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