WHAT a difference some rain makes.

Just months ago, Ashley Petersen was forced to pump an unprecedented amount of water through his irrigators to keep his cane crop going.

Now, the Nikenbah farmer’s dams are full and his outlook for 2020 is far brighter.

Mr Petersen said about 400 megalitres of water had been used to get his crop off the ground.

“It’s the most we’ve ever used,” he said.

But with welcome rain falling across the region in the past two months, fears of a horror season have died down.

Mr Petersen said the crop was a little backwards in size but “quite healthy now”.

“It certainly has potential with the heat and water together,” he said.

Before the rain, the farm had been forced to turn off the irrigation as the water supply was empty.

That supply is now being replenished, which bodes well if the months before the harvest are dry.

“It will be enough to get us through the season,” Mr Petersen said.

The region faced one of its driest years on record last year.

The lack of rain had canefarmers across the region struggling to grow their crops after a bumper year in 2018.

The cane harvest at MSF Sugar was six weeks shorter than usual in Maryborough last year, thanks to the lack of rain experienced by growers across the region.

Last year’s harvest was 592,000 tonnes, well short of the 2018 crop of almost 800,000 tonnes.

But while this crop won’t hit the heights of 2018, Mr Petersen was more optimistic than he expected to be.

With little rain at the end of last year, it was thought this year’s harvest could be lower than last year’s.

“We were just going ‘here we go again’,” Mr Petersen said.

Little rain was forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology leading into 2020, which had canefarmers bracing for the worst.

The international sugar price has also been increasing in another welcome boost for farmers in the region.

“It’s been on a tear the last couple of months,” Mr Petersen said.

Yerra canefarmer Daryl Cronan said the rain had been timely for his crop.

His farm also grows soybeans and corn, and while the rain was a bit late for the corn, it was welcome for the cane.

“It was too little, too late, but there is still potential there for a good crop of cane,” Mr Cronan said.

He was also glad the price of sugar had been given a much-needed boost, but he was cautious about celebrating too soon.

“I’m hoping the rain continues – we want to grow the rest of the crop without spending too much on irrigation.”