HARVEST is beginning to heat up in Victoria, with farmers in the north-west of the state slowly getting into this year's crop.
A run of warm weather earlier in the week saw many farmers striking a blow, before a cool change and storms put a hold on harvest activity on Tuesday evening.
Harvest has extended down from the Millewa to the Mallee, with harvesters rolling in areas like Walpeup, Sea Lake and down to Ultima.
Further south, farmers are preparing for harvest, with the majority of canola in the Wimmera now windrowed.
In the Millewa, west of Mildura, Chris Hunt said harvest was progressing well.
He had taken off both barley and wheat prior to a small hold-up with the rain.
"We're pretty happy with the early yields, there are yields of about 2 tonnes to the hectare on the barley which is probably a bit over what we were expecting, I was hoping for about 1.7, 1.8t/ha, so it is a pleasant surprise," Mr Hunt said.
He said harvest was still gearing up to full swing in the area.
"There's still a few that haven't started yet, I'd expect by the weekend the area will be really going."
Further south Terry Kiley, Nyarrin, in the central Mallee, was also going.
"We had about 2mm and we've been able to keep going on lupins during this time," he said.
He said early barley yields were about 3t/ha.
"It's about average, what you plan for at the start of the year."
Mr Kiley was hopeful the wheat would outyield the barley.
"It's not normal in this area, but given we have a lot of wheat on legume stubble and our only barley crop on legume stubble was quite a bit better than the others we are hopeful that will be the case."
At Donald, Dennis Adams, speaking at the end of October, expected it to be mid to late November before he got started.
He said farmers in the district were anticipating another strong season after a good year in 2019.
"It got a little dry towards the end of winter but spring has been reasonable and it has been a nice, cool finish to the season," Mr Adams said.
"We're probably going to get going a little later than normal because of that but the crops look like they've got pretty good potential."