THE header is out, but it will be travelling at speed on Mark Hoskinson's Riverina farm this harvest.
With good rain in June, Mr Hoskinson and his family planted about 1600ha of crop and dreamed that this year might just be "the one".
But since that good winter fall, their crops have been lucky to receive more than 4-5mm in a single fall and that sealed their fate.
"What really hurt us was a couple of hot days in early September and, from then on, it was clear we weren't going to have a good year as our moisture just ran out," Mr Hoskinson said.
"In fact, I would class this year as a shocker."
This week, Mr Hoskinson started stripping oats and will then move on to the barley and wheat, but predicted no paddock would yield more than about 0.5 tonnes/ha.
He said low prices only added to the disappointment of a year which promised so much.
"The price for prime wheat offered around here is $190 a tonne, which is about $100 a tonne less than last year," he said.
"And if you are talking about barley, it's more like $100-120 a tonne and that is well below the cost of production."
