Rain very patchy in northern, central and western Queensland

Although the wet season started hopefully with many areas recording good falls in November, it has failed to deliver follow-up rain.

Nina Hensley told the Who Got the Rain social media page that Clermont had recorded both its driest January and February on record, a combined total of 19mm for the year, compared to the usual 200mm.

It was a similar story further east, where Albert and Flossie Martin said 400mm last November and 50mm at the start of January was followed by eight weeks of relentless heat at Zilzie.

"This is not what the CQ coast is meant to be," the post read.

Similarly, Mount Morgan residents reported that the council had been trucking water in for several months.

Concerns extend northwards where Carissa Dowling commented that falls in the Richmond shire had been very hit and miss and very limited.

"Hard to fathom that it is so dry up here and we are looking at our 10th year of a long hideous drought and so much rain has fallen in other areas of the state," she said.

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At Charters Towers, the lack of rain is reflected in easing market prices at the Dalrymple Saleyard.

Charters Towers producer Les Brazier of Lynda Pemble said the rainfall in the northern region had been a concern.

"In this area it just hasn't been general enough with the rain," he said.

The cattle producer recently sold Brahman heifers at the Dalrymple saleyard for an average of 545c/kg.

Mr Brazier said the lack of rainfall leaves limited options with producers opting to offload their cattle.

"Only thing you can do is keep selling," he said. "If you haven't got the grass, you've got to keep selling."

The Maller family have several properties across the Maranoa region, as well as two farms in the South Burnett area, so they have seen first hand the contrast between dry paddocks and flooded crops.

Selwyn Maller said the difference between the family's properties on either side of Roma was quite noticeable, noting how patchy the rainfall had been throughout the summer months.

"We've got a place, Lussvale, south of Mitchell and it's done quite well all through Summer, particularly back in November when there was quite a bit of rain about," he said.

"Carrington, which is 100 kilometres south of Roma, was only just getting by all through November but it had 100mm in the last rain event that was around so that really helped us there.

"Here at Wallumbilla we had good rain in November but we're light on now, we only had 13mm in the last rain event."

Mr Maller said the cattle season is looking positive with plenty of feed heading into winter, but the heat and lack of rain have delayed the planting of oats and caused a bit of stress to forage sorghum crops.

"It's been a really mixed bag, with all the rain we had in November I would have thought that we would have had good rain out this way in January and February but that hasn't been the case," Mr Maller said.

"We had all our better rain early on and didn't see much at all after that.

"If we get some more now it will freshen everything up, allow us to plant oats and it'll boost the forage sorghum for the silage production."

Binny Pegler said his rainfall varied at Politic, south of Aramac, where they were "staring down the barrel of another bad drought".

"By the end of this month the 12 month total will be back to half the average."

Another central western producer grappling with nearly 10 years of drought is Dan Medill at Arundel, east of Ilfracombe.

His laptop displays photographs of green cup grass paddocks from rain that fell late last year but looking out the window a few months later, the paddocks tell a story of no follow-up, heatwave conditions and grasshopper damage.

He's philosophical about facing another year of belt tightening though.

With a great-great-grandmother buried in the pioneers section of the Longreach cemetery, he says they've dealt with 10-year droughts plenty of times before.

The usual modus operandi he and partner Joanne Robertson put into action for the open downs property when the rain fails is to close things down - sell off stock, keep a core nucleus of breeders, and feed them cotton seed.

"At the moment we've got our genetics and we can afford to just breed enough to keep these alive," Mr Medill said.

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The 9900ha property is on one-quarter of its usual stocking rate, currently 2000 breeding ewes and 1000 weaners, half of which will be sold shortly, along with 500 CFA ewes.

"That might give us enough income for another 12 months, and a wool clip of course," Mr Medill said.

It's thanks to escalating land values and high stock prices that they have enough equity to keep their bank manager happy.

While that means they're just keeping their heads above water, a lot of property improvements are falling by the wayside, thanks to a lack of spare cash to match to grants.

That includes fences that have been waiting for 10 years to be replaced.

However, because of the early season rain they've been able to ease off on feeding stock so Mr Medill says they're the most optimistic they've been for years.

"As Dad always says, you can see the stars and hear the birds."

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