The Border had just been hit with another 27 millimetre soaking.

It was enough to generate more than a few positive thoughts in a farming community well aware of predictions of a late-2015 El Nino event.

The Albury-Wodonga district was already wet under foot, thanks to a winter where the heavenly tap seemed to be on a constant quarter-turn.

The region was green, with the paddocks wet enough to dispel any thoughts it was merely a mirage.

The talk from farmers still is that it has been a excellent season from the time crops first went into the ground back in autumn.

For many people not on the land, that has been most apparent from the sea of yellow canola crops that can been seen from many a road and highway.

The concern in August though was that the region’s crops needed enough of a head start to at least provide a decent return even if spring got cut short.

And that it has, with a dryness settling on the landscape and an early plunge into summer-like heat.

Now the talk is of a hope that there be a least one more decent rain event in the coming weeks, before El Nino settles in properly for a stay of at least several months.

Walla cropper Daniel Mickan was not alone in describing how “perfect” a growing season it had been so far this year, nor in being realistic about what might still eventuate.

The value of harvesting a half-decent crop at the very least, if not the bumper ones expected up until recently, cannot be underestimated.

Larger centres such as Albury-Wodonga like to remind themselves of their stand-alone economic strengths, that sectors such as health and education plus long-established industry can somehow immune it from the fickleness of Mother Nature.

That is true to some extent, but a strong, dollar-pulling agricultural sector is still very much the area’s economic mainstay.

It can only be hoped that enough can still be realised from this year’s cropping yields to allow our region’s farming to get through what could be shorter-term tighter times.

Their success plays such a major role in our shared prosperity.