CROPPERS through central and eastern Australia are looking forward to starting off the upcoming winter cropping program with reasonable moisture profiles after generally solid rain over summer.
Surprisingly, it is South Australia leading the charge.
The Mediterranean climates across SA's major cropping zones mean summers are generally reasonably dry, but moisture from the tropics was drawn down in January leading to record rainfall in many parts, especially the Eyre Peninsula.
Marty Lovegrove, Cleve Rural Traders, in the eastern EP, said there had been significant rain in his region.
"It was stormy and patchy but there was a pretty widespread area that had between 100 and 200mm," Mr Lovegrove said.
While there was some damage associated with the storms he said the rain was welcomed.
"We're in a drier area so rain is welcome nearly any time," he said.
"The benefit of that subsoil moisture will be seen in the spring and we're also hoping to see a little bit of mineralised nitrogen, which is s a real plus with the high fertiliser prices on offer at present."
Given it is relatively late in the summer Mr Lovegrove said he was fairly confident most of the moisture would be stored.
"We'll get back on the paddocks when we can and spray and we're hopeful a fair bit will be plant-available later on."
He said there had been some logistics problems with roads damaged by the unseasonal rain and paddocks with light stubble cover had also suffered water erosion but said the positives far outweighed the negatives.
"We're pretty happy with how the summer has gone."
In Queensland, Brendan Taylor, AgForce grains section president said rain was interrupting the harvesting of early sorghum crops, but providing moisture for later sorghum, dryland cotton and mung bean crops, as well as potential winter crops.
"The early sorghum is yielding really well on the back of those heavy November rains," Mr Taylor said.
"Since then it has not been too bad, but I think most with later crops would like to see a little bit more," he said.
"It has not been particularly dry, but most of the rain has been storm driven so you have pockets that have got good rain and pockets that have missed out."
He said farmers would be watching a weather system over the next couple of days with interest.
"There is the potential for 40mm across much of inland southern and south-western Queensland and that would be really valuable for later sorghum crops and the beans in particular."
It is a similar story through northern and central NSW, where farmers are generally content with conditions, although it is not particularly wet.
"We had some flooding on the true flood plain country as a result of the November rain," said Walgett agronomist Greg Rummery.
"There was a reasonable amount of cotton washed out on those flood plains, but in other areas it has been reasonable but not massively wet," Mr Rummery said.
"We're looking like entering the winter cropping season with a pretty reasonable profile of moisture and good confidence but it is not three feet of mud either."
Mr Rummery said early sorghum crops were very close to harvest with good yield potential while later sorghum and dryland cotton would benefit from another rain.
"There is still a little way to go with those crops and you'd like a bit more rain even though there is moisture in the profile."
On the Liverpool Plains agronomist Pete McKenzie, Quirindi, said it was a similar story.
"It has been pretty good but no one would say no to a really good rain," Mr McKenzie said.
"A lot of the rain seems to have gone a little further south, but we are still in a handy position both for the summer and winter crops, although there is a long way to go until the sorghum will be ready," he said.
Bruce Watson, a farmer at Parkes, said there had been storm driven rain this week.
"Through the area it was patchy but there were some spots that had a good drink," Mr Watson said.
"We've got some sorghum in and it looks fairly good, it has definitely been a cool and damp summer, we only finished harvesting last year's chickpeas last week because it has been so cool and wet it has been hard to get them ready," he said.
Brett Hosking, Grain Growers chairman, said across Victoria there had been similar patchy stormy rain.
"Most places by now would have got at least one reasonable storm, but it was certainly a lot less than what was seen in South Australia," Mr Hosking said.
"There will be a lot of people out there controlling summer weeds, but they will hope for a little more moisture as the amounts of moisture we're likely to store will not be massive in many cases and the cost of herbicides is definitely high."
In Western Australia's grain belt there has not been the substantial rain attributed to the La Nina weather event seen on the east coast.
However, with generally sandier soils less conducive to storing soil moisture, farmers are not as worried about summer rain and its conservation as on the east coast, with autumn and in-crop rainfall the major drivers of crop prospects.
While there has been little rain in grain growing regions, it is another story in tropical WA, with Broome receiving more rain in the past week than all of 2021, with an incredible 662mm for the week up until Tuesday.
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