CROPS in the Charlton district in central Victoria have seldom looked so good at this time of year.
A good opening autumn break was enough to join up with moisture deposited by summer rain and give crops every chance early.
The earlier start allowed for a good germination before the cold and dark conditions of the depths of the Victorian winter slow plant advances to a minimum.
However, Charlton farmer Tim Giles is now looking for a rain.
"We're really well set up and we're certainly likely to get good biomass for our oaten hay crops, but we're starting to look for a bit of rain just to keep things ticking along," Mr Giles said.
On Friday Tim was out top-dressing urea on wheat in front of a cold change that was supposed to bring between 10-15mm, enough to wash the urea in, in the Charlton district.
However, while there was unexpectedly good rain in the far south-west of the state and eastern areas had a good drink, the state's major cropping areas once again missed out, with just 4mm at Tim's property north-west of Charlton.
"We're certainly not worried about things just as yet, but it is starting to get to the stage where we'd really like to see a decent fall of around an inch" Mr Giles said.
"June was very dry compared to average and we really haven't had much rain for July, we have had a lot of frosts which has dried out the top soil and slowed plant growth."
"It is certainly not panic stations by a long shot but we'd really love to see something in the next week or two to consolidate on the good crop condition at present."