Most of the region is still waiting on an autumn break, while some areas got up to 37.8mm of rain on a wet Anzac Day.
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Kerang saw 37.8mm of rain fall during the 24 hours up to 9am on Saturday, April 26, and Echuca received 21mm in the same time frame.
Agriculture Victoria seasonal risk agronomist Dale Grey said the dry start for the rest of the region had created some issues for farmers.
“There’s no crop that remotely has come up out of the ground ... but farmers really won’t start getting concerned until it’s June and they haven’t seen something,” he said.
Mr Grey said at this point, rain would be useful for farmers — even if it doesn’t hit autumn break status.
“It would be useful to the crops that have germinated and the ones that are dry sown in the ground, but they would need pretty good follow-up,” he said.
“Within a week you’d want to see another 10mm at least or preferably something better, but 10mm would not be enough to actually sow a crop on.
“It’s nothing unless it’s already in the ground.”
He said the reason for the dry start was that high-pressure systems had taken over the weather, blocking rain-bearing systems.
“At the moment our weather pattern is being dominated by high-pressure systems and while not being overtly strong and slow moving, are just in a position where they’re sitting over the state, and they’re blocking the rain-bearing systems like the fronts and the lows from coming across,” Mr Grey said.
“We need the high-pressure systems to spread out, to move further north, before we start seeing more frequent rainfall.”
Goorambat crop farmer Sam Gall said despite the dry start to the season, the farm had kicked-on.
“We’ve made a start to the season,” he told Country News on Thursday, April 24.
“We’re a third of the way through our program now, but a little bit more rain would be nice.”
His 4200ha property grows cereal, legumes and canola.
Last week he finished sowing canola, and he’ll now move to legumes before ending with wheat.
“We’re probably still sitting in a better position than some other people, but there was only 40mm of rain in March which has helped us make a bit of a start, but we’ll take whatever we can get this weekend,” Mr Gall said.
However, he said the rain levels won’t impact his schedule too much, and they’ll stick to the program as normal.
“Definitely a dry start, but nothing we haven’t dealt with before,” Mr Gall said.
“We’re not concerned, and hopefully it means that we can bring home a wet spring.”
On Friday, April 25, Shepparton Airport recorded 1mm of rain, which was more rain than Mr Gall saw, but he said the sowing program will continue as normal, however wheat will need to be sown a bit deeper.
Nutrien Ag Solutions Shepparton agronomist Ky Shapcott also wasn’t particularly concerned with the current weather.
“It’s an exception if we’ve had rain before now, really,” Mr Shapcott said.
“Anzac Day used to be when we started sowing, and we just started pushing earlier because we had a few years we could get away with it.”
The weather has caused some farmers to change their tactic, aiming to get crops in the ground before the break.
“Quite a few blokes have got started on the dry sowing,” Mr Shapcott said.
“Some have decided to hold off, and they’re just getting going before Anzac Day, and a lot of that’s down to varieties.
“There has been a bit of discussion out of our area more than anything, like to the west, some blokes have dropped canola as they’ve been worried about the dry start, but we haven’t changed a great deal.”
The weather itself isn’t the main worry, Mr Shapcott said, but it has caused a different problem.
“I suppose it is weather-related, but we don’t have a lot of subsoil moisture,” he said.
“Last year, yes, we had a late break and things were tight, but we had a lot of moisture underneath to finish off the season, but this year we don’t have any stored moisture, so that is creating a little bit of concern for people.
“Also, there’s not a lot of feed for livestock in paddocks and there’s not a lot of hay either, so there might be a potential for quite a few people to do hay.”
Outside the Goulburn Valley, Mr Grey said there was some good rain followed by dry skies, which caused problems for crop farmers.
“It’s interesting because, a lot of the grain farmers had some really good rainfall in April,” he said.
“Rutherglen had good opening rain, and then got some good follow-up the next week, which was enough for people to start planting some winter cereals or some long season crops, crops for fodder or hay or grazing.
“They’re going well, but the problem is there’s been absolutely no rain since then, so those plants are getting pretty dry and parched.
“So, that’s very atypical compared to the rest of the state.”
Journalist