Crops recover from moisture stress after widespread rainfall around Western Australia

In the first week of June, some crops were starting to suffer from moisture stress, but widespread rain over the course of last week and the weekend provided a handy top-up, especially to early sown canola.

In general, rainfall totals over the past week varied from as low as five millimetres at locations such as Bolgart and Latham, up to figures well in the 50s and 60s in the Great Southern and parts of the Wheatbelt.

In the northern part of the Agricultural Region, most people were finished with seeding in May and while there were a few late paddocks, mainly cover cropping of ameliorated paddocks going in in early June, that's all wrapped up now.

Generally the crops were looking very good, although some later sown crops were looking a bit patchy in some places as the moisture started to run out towards the end of seeding.

Crop Circle Consulting and Research director Grant Thompson said anything that went in near to the big tropical weather event at the end of March or beginning of April definitely looks good.

However, he said some of the big early sown canola crops were very thirsty last week before the rain.

"We even saw some canola crops starting to drop the earliest leaves and they were really starting to struggle, plus some cereal crops were starting to lay over in the cold, windy and dry conditions," Mr Thompson said.

In terms of the rainfall over the past week, it was strippy and varied from 5mm to 40mm.

"The whole region needed a good 20mm rainfall event to get some readily available moisture back into the profile and get the crops out of the stress situation," Mr Thompson said.

"For the farmers who got the lower end of the tally, that's only going to freshen the crops up for a short while, but hopefully it gets them through to the end of the week when there's more rain forecast."

Overall, the early sowing opportunities set the region up for a high potential year if it keeps raining, but the past month of small rainfall events and moisture stress had taken the shine off thoughts of a bumper season.

While the potential is there for a good year, growers will need some big rainfall events in June and July to get them back into a high production scenario.

While the odd farmer may have been sowing some pasture crops in the second week of June, the vast majority of growers along the South Coast had wrapped up their seeding programs in the first week of the month.

It's a chalk and cheese scenario on the coast this year, with growers grateful their previous waterlogging woes have not yet been an issue.

Nutrien Ag Solutions Albany agronomist Kirsty Smith said it was a stark difference to this time last year when it had already started to be well and truly too wet.

"Last year, the moisture profile by the first week of May was starting to get quite full and from there on it just got worse," Ms Smith said.

"This year it's still been cool and soil temperatures have dropped, but it hasn't been waterlogged, so crops have been able to get up and going a lot easier."

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In the southern coastal area, there are areas of paddocks which are lost to waterlogging every year, but the size of those varies, depending on the season.

Ms Smith expects they'll start to lose some areas if it keeps getting wetter, but it's still nothing like last year when by mid-June they were already writing off entire paddocks.

"There were also paddocks this time last year that we couldn't seed as we couldn't get tractors on them, whereas this year that hasn't been an issue and all paddocks have been able to go into the ground," she said.

"If we end up with a year that's average or slightly below in terms of rainfall, it tends to work out better, especially as fertiliser use efficiency is always higher when it doesn't leach.

"If everything keeps ticking along nicely and we don't get too wet, then we should hopefully be on the higher end of production at the end of the year."

Across the central part of the grain growing area, at least 95 per cent of growers have wrapped up their seeding programs, but there might be a few out there dragging their feet with a few cereal crops.

From last week's rain, some growers only got single digit rainfall figures, while others had more than 50mm.

Before the rain, the crops were looking good, some canola crops which were sown very early were starting to flower.

Elders Merredin agronomist Keith Perry said some of those were looking for a drink and had started to go purple, pink and yellow - all colours they shouldn't be.

"There was a considerable amount of moisture stress," Mr Perry said.

"Everyone would have welcomed the fact they got something, but those that were only in the single digits won't be too excited and will definitely be looking at the rain on the forecast at the end of the week.

"For those that got more than the 20mm mark, it will give them a bit of breathing space, whereas some others will still be needing more rain and soon to keep things going."

Realistically for most people in the region the season has had a dream start - there was early rainfall, the opportunity in most cases to get in two knockdowns and some good canola crops in the ground.

Seeding in the Great Southern has more or less come to an end and while there are still some bits and pieces of barley and short season wheat to be done, on the whole it's wrapped up.

Independent agronomist Frank Boetel, based at Katanning, said before the rain over the past week there was still plenty of gas in the soil, so to speak.

"With the rain over the past week it's topped things up nicely and pretty much any crops that needed a drink got one," Mr Boetel said.

"It's getting wet east of Katanning towards Nyabing and up towards Pingrup, and while it's not extreme yet, it's definitely a bit wet."

With seeding over, growers will turn their attention to a multitude of tasks including spraying, nitrogen applications and strategic baiting or control for mice, slugs, red mite and other pests and diseases.

Overall, Mr Boetel said this season was looking better than last.

"We've got quite a bit of subsoil moisture," he said.

"If growers adhere to some smart risk management, I can definitely see this year being more profitable than last year."