THIS week's wet weather has brought some much needed rain to fledgling crops across the state.
For the week to Tuesday morning, the biggest tally in the state was recorded at Lenswood with 119 millimetres and Uraidla at 108mm.
Outside the Adelaide Hills, the more fortunate agricultural areas included Nangwarry with 84mm, Kingscote had 63mm, Minlaton 53mm, Coulta on the Eyre Peninsula had 52mm, Auburn also had 52mm, Roseworthy 52mm, Quorn 49mm and Bordertown 41mm.
Even in the not-so-lucky Riverland and Mallee, double-figure numbers were recorded throughout, with Claypans receiving 38mm, Alawoona 25mm, Loxton 21mm and Berri 17mm, while north-east of Adelaide, where farmers have also had some tough years, Truro had 71mm, Eudunda 50mm and Robertstown 39mm.
Mallee farmer Peter Blacket said the rain this past week had turned his fortunes around, from an almost failed season, to now looking very close to average.
He crops 3000 hectares of wheat, barley, canola, lupins, beans and oats at Wynarka, alongside 1200 Merino ewes.
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He has recorded more than 35mm since early last week, with another 10-15mm expected over the next few days.
"Two weeks ago, our crop were going backwards," he said.
"We just couldn't jag any rain over double figures this year.
"According to my CliMate app, we were decile 0.5 - almost our worst season ever.
"Our cereal yield potential has now gone from 1 tonne/ha a fortnight ago, to now 1.7t/ha. Our average is about 2.2t/ha so it's not far off, if the year keeps going well."
More from the Mallee in this week's Stock Journal.
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