Farmers rejoice, even though its not all roses

SEVEN kilometres north of Euroa in central Victoria, 57-year-old cattle farmer Richard McGeehan is in a buoyant mood. "This is big exciting stuff!" he gushes as he jumps out of the ute pointing to one of the property's dams.

"That was empty all last year but now it's full. That's worth a million dollars to us."

Mr McGeehan was forced to sell 200 breeding cows last month because of the drought and was planning to sell 200 calves to the butchers market.

"But then it rained. So I might only need to sell 50 and hold on to others to make some money."

But Mr McGeehan says the rain is no cure to all of the problems the drought has brought to his farm.