WHILE ongoing rains have set up much of the Wheatbelt, the northern Geraldton zone continues to be dry.
The Grains Industry Association of WA (GIWA) May Crop Report highlights little seeding activity in this area, while counterparts south of Geraldton are 70 per cent complete.
Inland areas around Eradu, Yuna and Mullewa, canola and lupins have been reportedly dropping from the seeding programs due to the dry conditions and lack of forecasted rain for the first half of May.
Meanwhile around Carnamah, Watheroo, and Wubin areas are very wet, with Latham growers recording around 270 millimetres of rain so far this year compared to 200mm for the whole of 2015.
Lupin plantings around Walkaway to Dongara are increasing this year in line with profitability and higher expected yields, with establishment there and south into Badgingarra considered excellent.
In the Kwinana zone, there are reports of the best start to the season in living memory where high soil moisture levels are common.
This falls in line with the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre's recent Crop Prospects report which outlines "excellent summer and early autumn rains have set up the WA cropping season with good soil moisture profiles that do not need much rain to maintain to restart seeding".
This is in contrast to eastern Australia where dry profiles over large areas of Victoria and South Australia are a concern, with the weekend's weather system a hopeful sign for growers in these areas.
In WA, this system was much more mild and the concerning lack of rain in the north continued.
Yuna recorded 1 millimetre in seven days to Monday, 2mm fell at Northampton in the same period, while Dandaragan recorded 15mm and 3mm fell at Carnamah.
Out east, Southern Cross has has 22mm in the past seven days and Westonia had 18mm as did Merredin and Tammin.
In the Great Southern, Lake Grace had 12mm, Dumbleyung and Corrigin had 11mm and 12 mm fell at Pingelly.
In Esperance, 30mm fell for the week, Ravensthorpe had 25mm and 29mm fell at Salmon Gums
For the Crook family of Merredin, this year's rainfall has set a positive tone for the season ahead.
Brothers Steven and Andrew, along with Andrew's sons Jayden and Callan, farm together around Merredin and Hines Hill.
"Our cropping program is the same as last year, except we are up 700 hectares of canola," Callan said.
"We started putting in canola as early as March 25 and the reason for that is because we had such a great start."
Outside of canola, the Crook's seed wheat, barley, oats and lupins started on March 25 this year, the earliest they have gone.
"Last year, we had an early start as well and it was April 2," Callan said.
"In drier years we start around the middle of April, so this would be the earliest we have sown canola."
Receiving between 130-160mm across their properties since January 2016, the Crook family will now capitalise on the great rainfall by concentrating on soil quality.
"The early rains meant that we have a really good germination, so we are going to have to really look after the soil to get a healthy crop," he said.
"Over the next week, we will be looking at results from our soil tests for nitrogen and sulphur top-ups."
With another front predicted on Saturday, the Crook boys are hoping to finish their final 1000 hectares of Mace wheat by the weekend.
"It is looking encouraging," Callan said.
"We really want to be finished seeding by Saturday, to take advantage of the next rainfall event."
For York farmers Tim and Sheri Madigan and Leon and Kirsty Ryan, the almost 200mm of rain they have seen since January 2016 has been the perfect start to the season.
"It has been a good start, probably one of the best we have ever had," Tim said.
"These heavy rainfall events mean there is more crop potential this season and better weed control.
"We have also spread some Muriate of Potash (MOP) previous to seeding, to top up potassium-deficient areas."
This has been the earliest the Ryan/Madigan farm has sown its 2800 hectares of wheat, canola, field peas, barley and lupins.
"Normally we start between April 15-25, but this year we started around April 5," Tim said.
While they have enjoyed an early start, Tim and Leon will string out their last 1300 hectares, with aims of finishing seeding on around May 20-25.
"It has been an awesome start to the year and the rains have produced a great chance to get on top of the weeds.
"Fingers crossed the rain keeps coming."
GIWA is pointing to the worst-case scenario of an average crop for most of WA this season as the intended mix of grains to be sown is altered to take advantage of certain rainfall events and the general soft market outlook for cereals.
Canola plantings have risen in their estimated planting area 1.5pc to 1.17 million hectares.
Meanwhile, wheat, barley and oats plantings will decline on original estimations, dropping the State's total area planted by 0.3pc to 7.506 million hectares.
Efforts for those well into, or finishing seeding are now focused on the post-emergent weed control programs for early crops.