PICTURES of city residents running for cover dominated the coverage of the recent storm in Melbourne, but further out farmers were rejoicing.

It was the best autumn rain in many years for northern Victorian farmers - just the tonic after years of devastating conditions.

Martin Grimwade, who runs a large cattle and sheep farm near Broadford, said the recent downpour had made farmers cautiously optimistic about the season ahead.

“It’s the best start to autumn that we’ve had for 20-odd years,” he said. “We haven’t had a big lick of rain like this in the genuine autumn growing season for a long, long time.”

Mr Grimwade has been relying heavily on supplementary feed during a three-year dry spell that has been disastrous for the farming industry. But some good follow-up rain in a couple of weeks should have Mr Grimwade’s stock grazing happily in the paddock.

“It’s a good start but the thing about autumn is they can be fickle things, and we can get a lot of wind in April and no rain, and that can undo all the good work in March,” he said.

“Farmers are always nervous. Once you get the feed it’s well and good, but we’re getting set up. If we can score a big rain like this in two weeks time we’d be really set then.”

With a big rain comes the emergence of weeds, which can cause problems for farmers.

Mr Grimwade said because paddocks were bare, weeds such as wild mint have been rife.

“We’ve got weeds that we really haven’t seen a lot of before,” he said.

“But everyone would take the rain, there’s no doubt about that.”

“It makes everyone much more confident to go forward, especially around here the last three years have been horrendous, so if we could get a good autumn and follow it up with a good spring, that’s a good way to get farmers back on track.”

Mr Grimwade will hold a bull sale at his property on 20 April, and is hoping favourable weather will continue until then.

“A good autumn will hopefully make people feel a bit better about buying bulls,” he said.