Farmers through Victoria's west Wimmera region have finally been able to get on paddocks and lodge a belated finish to the 2023-24 harvest.
Rainfall of well in excess of 250mm from late November to mid-January in parts of the region put the brakes on harvest programs, with many farmers taking several weeks off harvest to allow wet spots to dry.
The last leg of the harvest has seen relatively substantial tonnages of grain taken off, particularly barley.
Clayton Shannon, managing director of logistics at Shannon Bros, which runs bulk handling sites at Beulah, in the southern Mallee, and Horsham, said ex-farm receivals had finally slowed to a crawl this week.
"It's been a funny old year, you would never normally expect to be this busy in February but there has been quite a bit coming in, we've had over a thousand tonnes a day moving through as recently as early this week, so there definitely are a few growers that are winding up late," Mr Shannon said.
He said the majority of the late harvested crop was barley.
"People harvested their canola first, as happens in this area, and then probably made the decision to prioritise the wheat, which is higher value, meaning there was a lot of barley still to be harvested after the rain."
"They've given it plenty of time to dry out to stop headers getting bogged and got back into it in February."
Mr Shannon said the quality of the barley coming in was remarkable given the rain.
"It is Barley 3, (a lower quality feed segregation) and we've got some pretty light test weights, but given the amount of rain the crop had on most growers have commented they've been fairly pleased with how it has held up and that there hasn't been a heap of sprouting."
"There will be demand from feed users and it is a lot easier for growers to market grain that has a formal classification rather than off-spec, severely weather damaged product."
He said the majority of the grain coming in late was from areas west of Horsham.
"The heaviest rain seemed to be in that west Wimmera region, we've had growers in that region still going when people further down south, that normally finish later, have all wound up."
John Bennett, who has cropping enterprises near Kaniva, in the west Wimmera and near Marnoo, in the east, said it had been a delayed harvest for many.
"There were some lucky enough to finish before Christmas, but those that didn't had further delays with rain," he said.
"Mostly it seemed to be barley that remained to be harvested, with the latest stuff only coming off recently."
Mr Bennett said it had been a largely strong harvest for most growers in the region.
"The delays and the downgrading at the end were irritating, but the early yields were very good, especially for canola and even the wheat, which had some rain on it, generally held up well."