" . . .I thought it was looking really bad and things weren't good. I was getting a bit sick of it.
"A holiday has been good to go away and come back . . . really refreshed.
"It makes you realise it's not too bad," Mr Burnett (40) said yesterday.
The situation was not desperate on his 360ha dryland property, which runs predominantly deer, although he acknowledged other farmers in North Otago were worse off.
"It's certainly not as dry as we've known it to be here [on his farm].
"Some years . . the paddocks have been absolutely grey and just nothing," he said.
Mr Burnett was surprised how quickly the grass had responded after 9mm of welcome rain last week and there was now a "pick of green".
He had destocked because of the conditions, selling 100 bulls, and he was trying to sell some calves but there was not a market for them at the moment.
On the positive side, it had been a really good season until now and he had made 800 bales of baleage, compared with 80 bales last year, so he had plenty of supplementary feed.
Stock were doing "exceptionally well" for the little feed around.
Local irrigators had been shut off for the longest period he had seen, with one dairy farmer unable to irrigate from the Kauru River since January.
Although Mr Burnett had enough stock water on his property, he had seen neighbours carting water from the river.
North Otago farmers were used to dry spells and he recalled a "nasty" drought in 1985, followed by a "stinking one" three years later.