After years of battling drought Cowra's rural sector is enjoying one of the most promising starts to a growing season in living memory.
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More than 300mm of rain already this year and a record breaking April is "as good as it gets", according to Elders agronomist Peter Watt.
"The psychology of the farming community has changed," he said.
"People were in a siege mentality situation, they were defensive, they were feeding stock, worried about the drought, had issues potentially with debt.
"It has just been wonderful to see the whole rural community take advantage of such beautiful conditions.
"Psychologically it has given people on the land a huge lift.
"I've had several growers say to me 'it's as good as it gets' and it is certainly the best season start that they can remember," Mr Watt said.
"Fluky' rain in January and February followed up by substantial falls in March and April have pushed soil moisture levels to near capacity.
Mr Watt described Cowra's rain during the first week of March and in early April followed up by solid rain on Good Friday and then again at the end of the month as "a real game changer" resulting in a rapid turnaround of conditions.
"It's been the most rapid turnaround in seasonal prospects that I can remember," he said.
"We normally say that if you can get stock on crop by Anzac Day you're having a good year.
"We had stock on crop in some cases at the end of March, early April.
"People took advantage of that early sowing window," he said of the rain that fell earlier in the year.
Stock shortage is possibly the only concern for farmers at present, especially for those forced to sell during drought conditions.
"There is an abundance of fodder, in fact one of the biggest problems is trying to get stock, either agistment or purchasing them, it is very hard, you have to go into the market and pay good money," Mr Watt said.
"It's an embarrassment of riches at the moment, its just a matter of whether you have the capacity to take advantage of that.
"People had to strategically sell down (stock) so we're rebuilding the flock in some cases.
"It's very optimistic, wheat prices are okay, canola prices pretty good, we're looking at high 200s (dollars a tonne) for wheat and maybe close to 550 to 600 (dollars a tonne) local site for canola.
Looking ahead Mr Watt said with more than 300mm of rain, or over 60mm a month, falling in the Cowra district already this year "If we can get 30 to 50mm a month through winter it's happy days, then the Spring is the unknown question but certainly we have good water downstairs now.
"We're starting to see a few machines getting bogged which is a good sign.
"Our traditional autumn break normally occurs around about now, during the first week in May.
"In the fluky (weather) season at the back end of of summer and in March, April, if you can get some rain in there it is liquid gold, especially with the wheat crop genuinely going in one month earlier than it did a couple of decades ago.
"Some people got fluky rain through January, February, some of which was damaging but that first week of March the 50-60mm that's what has set us up and a lot of people sowed then."
"It's just delightful, but fundamentally you can nearly say we're out of (the drought), he said.
