In the December edition of Farming Ahead the Commonwealth Bank's Brendan White looked at the upturn in global commodity prices and the positive environment it had created for Australian producers. Since then, Australia has seen just how unpredictablelife on the land can be, with producers in the eastern states hit by unseasonably heavy rains and flooding, dashing hopes of a record grain crop plus threatening the potential of the summer crops. During November parts of eastern Australia received up to350 per cent of their average annual rainfall, with the deluge continuing into the following month. During late December, more than 40 local government areas in new South Wales were declared natural disaster zones and the Gascoyne region in Western Australia was hit by the worst flooding in history.
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