Although the drought is far from over, there are some positive signs emerging for some farmers across the region.
Narrabri’s cattle sales were held for the first time yesterday since heavy rain fell a fortnight ago.
Although supply was low, prices were higher compared with
recent months.
“To have five to ten inches of rain in March is just tremendous,” said Davidson Cameron & Co spokesman Michael Guest.
“It won’t fix a lot of things, [but] it will certainly give people a bit of confidence and the warm weather has given us some feed growth.
“It would have been great to have it earlier but it is certainly not as problematic [compared with] if we hadn’t had any rain at all.”
And the Australia-Japan free trade agreement (FTA) signed by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Trade Minister Andrew Robb in Japan this week has been welcomed by the beef industry and agricultural industries generally.
“Producers may not have grasped the full meaning of it yet, and it will take some years to show a lot of benefit, but it is a tiered approach and the cattle industry would welcome it for sure,” said Mr Guest.