Broadacre farmers in Western Australia, who have struggled all year with dry conditions, are now suffering from hail and storm damage.
Three powerful storms passed over Craig Thompson's farm north-east of Yuna last night bringing rain, wind and hail.
"We got woken about two o'clock last night as loud cracks of thunder and gale-force winds started coming in, and then we started hearing the hail stones on the windows," he said.
Mr Thompson said the hail had done significant damage.
"The canola, which is is pretty well in full flower, I'd say 80 per cent of the flowers have been ripped off and [suffered] broken stems," he said.
"Same with the wheat. It's hard to say percentage but there is a lot of heads on the ground with snapped stems or bent over."
Hail also hit at Damian Harris's farm north-east of Binnu, but he said the damage was not very severe.
"The wheat's not too bad, only about five to 10 per cent damage I would say, in patches and strips," he said.
"It's just shocking for the guys further east who got belted when you're having a shocking season."
Rain welcomed by dry farmers
Falls of between 10 millimetres at Binnu and up to 40mm at Mullewa were recorded in the northern agricultural region.
For both Damian Harris and Craig Thompson, 2017 has been one of their worst seasons and they welcomed the rain that fell during the storms.
"We're just never giving up on some crops, we just don't want to go backwards too much. At the moment we're just trying to stem the loss," Mr Harris said.
Agronomist Simon Teakle said the rain was a game changer for some farmers.
"I think there is a lot of farmers that were looking at complete wipe outs. (This rain) will probably stop that from happening," he said.
"From what might have been a really big loss for growers will now be minimal losses."
