A lack of rain, coupled with a frosty winter has spelled bad news for John Hamparsum’s dryland wheat, but a bumper irrigated crop will be a saving grace.

In June, the Breeza farmer planted 170 hectares of wheat in dry land and 270 hectares in irrigated land. Only 50 per cent of the wheat in the irrigated land has been watered because of restrictions.

Mr Hamparsum said 170mm of rain in March had set the wheat up for a great season, but as the dry conditions drew out over the following months, he saw the effects.

“In the dryland, the top four rows have aborted and then the rain came [in October] and it really tried to compensate and under that aborted grain, you can see it’s really big because it now has the moisture to reproduce,” he said.

“All up we’ve had 90mm since it started raining again. Unfortunately, it’s too late to be fantastically good but it has had some benefits.”

It’s a completely different story for the watered wheat, which will help the crop scrape through.

“The irrigated wheat is looking bloody amazing. It’s some of the best wheat I’ve ever seen,” Mr Hamparsum said.

“It’s rescued what could have been an absolute disaster.

“[The average yield] is going to be a lot better than we thought.”

The farmer said 80 per cent of his wheat crops are durum wheat but “prices aren’t great”.

“One would think with the lack of durum about, we’d get better prices but I think the buyers are holding off,” he said.

Mr Hamparsum said he was looking at harvesting in mid-November.

“We’d like to see blue skies until after harvest,” he said.