Cold fronts bring rain relief for Mid West farmers in WA

Farmers near Geraldton are rejoicing after more than 100mm of rain fell on paddocks after months of dry and difficult conditions.

Transcript

00:00 From dust to mud. On the northern tip of the WA Grain Belt, Damien Harris recorded more

00:08 rain in 24 hours on Saturday than he did for the entire year last year.

00:14 It was a bit of disbelief really. I was in Geraldton and getting phone calls saying the

00:19 rain's coming and it's quite heavy and there's nothing here, we'll check it tomorrow and

00:24 you know it's just incredible.

00:26 Harris received almost 160mm so far and is now well set up for the season ahead. A relief

00:34 after last year where some paddocks weren't worth even harvesting.

00:38 A lot of us can remember the last droughts and there was two in a row and we didn't want

00:42 that again. I don't think we could financially survive at this time.

00:45 Near Geraldton, Ben Royce is preparing to seed his last paddock after tipping 100mm

00:52 from his rain gauge. He's planted a large hay crop this season as the state remains

00:58 desperately short of livestock fodder.

01:01 The hay isn't here this year and hopefully this year will be different this season coming.

01:05 Our hay crop's looking really good already which is promising. The demand is out of control

01:11 this season.

01:12 Rivers are flowing and some roads in the midwest are closed due to flooding.

01:18 While they're celebrating in the north, the rain did not reach farmers in the great southern.

01:23 Some are still waiting and hoping for their season to break.

01:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]