IT has been a long time between crops for most in Queensland's western farming belt but thankfully grain growers like Muckadilla's John Hacker finally have something to smile about.
After falls of 125 millimetres to 250mm across his property in December, 50mm in January and another 79mm this week, Mr Hacker now enjoys the novelty of having a promising crop in the ground.
Mr Hacker and his wife Kerri have planted 240 hectares of Crystal mungbeans on their 3800ha property Summerhope, which also supports beef backgrounding and wool production businesses.
Planted just before Christmas at a rate of 18 kilograms/ha, the crop received 20kg/ha of MAP at planting along with 3 litres/ha of liquid fertiliser.
With harvest still a few months away it is early days but Mr Hacker said he was pleased with the initial progress of the crop.
"It's up and it's looking good which is a start," he said. "Prices are also looking good at the moment. I think they are around $1100/tonne, which is what we work on."
The Hackers have been growing mungbeans since 1996 and say it's taken some practice to master the best growing conditions.
"You need good soil - you can't do them on light stuff," Mr Hacker said.
"We also planted mungbeans on mungbeans one year and found out pretty quickly that that is a big no-no."
Mr Hacker also has 40ha of forage sorghum in the ground - a crop that was planted on the hope of rain in October last year.
It proved a wise move for the Hackers who've already harvested one feed off the sorghum, allowing them to rest their grazing country during the critical growing period.
"We had 18 inches (450mm) of moisture and we took a punt because we were running out of feed and we really wanted to give the pasture a rest," he said. "It gave us four weeks where we didn't have any cattle on our grazing country at all, which was excellent for the grass. It really needed a spell and the sorghum enabled us to do that."
The Hackers have 1800ha of cultivation on Summerhope and now have their sights set on a decent winter crop.
"We have missed out on two summer crops and two winter crops, which has been financially devastating," he said. "The worst thing is that you still have all the costs but nothing at the end."
The Hacker family also background heifers for Australian Country Choice (ACC) and run 600 Merino wethers for wool production under a rotational grazing system.