Aussie farmers dance in the rain

Australian farmers have been dancing in the rain as downpours delivered the first soaking falls in over four years to large parts of drought-ridden eastern Australia.

The rainfall would be enough to allow many farmers to plant their winter crops after months of waiting, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said yesterday. Australia, the world's second-largest wheat exporter after the United States, is a major supplier to Asia and the Middle East.

"Farmers are out dancing in the rain," farmer Chris Groves told Reuters by telephone from his prime wheat-growing area at Cowra, 250 kilometres west of Sydney.

Australia's eastern farmers have endured three months with barely a drop from the sky. Some areas have not even begun to recover from Australia's worst drought in a century, which destroyed crops and caused a mass slaughter of livestock in 2002.

That drought never broke in some far-inland areas of eastern Australia.

Farmers in country towns, dustbowls a few days ago, happily trudged through brown rivulets of rain water running through streets and fields.

On the edge of the Outback, the far western New South Wales town of Ivanhoe received one of the best falls on Friday and yesterday of around 50 mm.

The rain came just days after Australia officially slashed its forecast for the next wheat crop by almost 30 per cent. However, wheat planted up to the end of June, although sown late, can still yield good crops.

Up to 50 mm of rain fell yesterday in a sweeping band along a 1,500 kilometre front, from Adelaide in South Australia, through Victoria and into western New South Wales.

Brown hills and valleys throughout Australia's grains belt, unusually quiet in recent weeks as farmers prayed for rain, will now turn frantic as growers sow their crops.

On the border between New South Wales and Victoria, leading wheat farmer Angus Macneil said most of his farm will be sowed as quickly as possible.

Prime grain-growing areas throughout New South Wales and Victoria also received good falls of up to 30 mm yesterday.

Recipients included the Cowra-Dubbo-Parkes region in New South Wales and the northeast of Victoria.

Victoria's Mallee and Wimmera wheat-growing areas received good falls on Friday.