Above average to remarkable, that's the consensus for the majority of grain yields so far this harvest.
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Many areas are recording extremely high yields, while in other areas it's been good, but a case of what might have been with a timely rain.
Driscoll Ag agronomist and director, Brett Douglas, St Arnaud, said most yields were "higher than people anticipated".
"Beans have been going well over three tonnes, some canola around three tonnes, lentils two tonnes and barley five to seven tonne. Wheat looks to be as promising," he said.
Alan Mills, who farms with wife Pauline and son Brayden at Natte Yallock, near Maryborough, said they were "really happy" with their canola crop.
He said the oil yield was impacted by the high yield, "but I'm not complaining".
After the canola one header would go onto barley and the second machine onto wheat.
Mr Mills said the barley looked "pretty impressive" and should yield around 5t/ha, all of which would be stored onfarm in grain bags.
"We've had a good run with the bags and we'll do a fair few this year. We'll store it all and then worry about it in March/April," he said.
"Logistically it works well with the header working into the bag machine."
Mr Mills said the crops in much of the area were just short of 25 millimetres of rain in July that would have made a big difference to yields.
"You can see where there is a bit of low swampy ground that the yields are much higher," he said.
They also produced close to 10,000 large square bales of oaten hay this year for domestic and export markets.
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GrainCorp regional operations manager for Victoria, Brent Hornby, said the harvest was past the half way point.
The northern half of the state got underway a little bit later than anticipated (compared to last year) while the southern half had started a little earlier, he said.
There was little impact on quality from weather events to date.
"We continue to monitor advice from the Country Fire Authority to monitor extreme conditions of heat and wind as we move further into summer," he said.
Mr Hornby said the challenge for GrainCorp was to ensure we have the right people and equipment in the right places to manage demand.
"We have recruited around 900 casual staff to help us manage the harvest in Victoria," he said.
"Some staff have also started moving south from sites in NSW now that border restrictions have eased."
Mr Hornby said thankfully the COVID-19 restrictions had eased in Victoria so there was no longer a requirement to wear masks outside on site, as had been the case.
