Carnamah seeding has been delayed after minimal rain, while it's full steam ahead in Narrogin

The start of seeding has been described as a relatively good one by multiple agronomists, with early rains in March and some surprise drizzles in April helping programs move at a steady pace.

While a large portion of the State has been able to seed into good soil moisture, there are still some dry patches.

Carnamah is one of those areas which, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, only received 3.4 millimetres in the past month.

Nutrien Ag Solutions, Carnamah branch manager Mitch Hutton believed his region had probably received the lowest rainfall in the State.

"We've received virtually nothing this month - maybe 5 or 10mm here and there - but it's been very strippy," Mr Hutton said.

He estimated only 10pc of farmers went in early this season and 60pc didn't seed on the traditional Anzac Day start time - but would be waiting another week or two.

Most farmers in Carnamah will be dry seeding and Mr Hutton said the expectation for the season was average to below average - due to low soil moisture, rainfall and the bureau's forecast.

He said the question of fertiliser was weighing heavily on everyone's minds.

"People are probably a bit unsure what to do with fertiliser, whether they commit to fertiliser now, or they hold off and try to play the season," Mr Hutton said.

"We've had three good years in a row, so nutrient levels are pretty light, so I will say guys are cautious of that.

"They don't want to over commit to fertiliser, especially with historically high pricing - that's probably the main battle."

Mr Hutton said Carnamah farmers were more cautious this year, with discussions about pulling back on canola and planting more wheat and barley.

"I think it's in their head that they probably can be conservative, because they've got a bit of cash from the past few years," he said.

Carnamah is slightly isolated in its seeding approach, as slightly north and east farmers have received decent rain and "started cranking".

In comparison, Esperance has received much more rainfall and many farmers are finishing up their canola seeding.

Elders Esperance agronomist James Bidstrup said rain had been patchy throughout the Esperance port zone, but north of the Esperance zone had received close to 20mm in March.

"Some have been lucky to receive just a tad more than an inch this week, so that's been quite spectacular for them," Mr Bidstrup said.

"There's moisture in the soil profile, but we are looking to try and secure another inch or so going into early May."

Mr Bidstrup said a lot of farmers would start seeding barley this week and then potentially wait before seeding wheat.

He said it's probably earlier than the traditional break of season, but he wouldn't consider it early compared to the past couple of years.

"We've had a very dry summer, but that was on the back of a wet spring and we had early summer rains in late 2022," he said.

"So there's still probably a little bit of scepticism just considering there's no huge systems on the forecast currently for us.

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"But it's early days and thankfully, for the most part, a lot of input prices are trending downwards - so hopefully that makes for good conditions."

In the Narrogin area, many farmers are also finishing their canola and starting their cereals this week.

Nutrien Ag Solutions, Narrogin agronomist and branch manager Brad Westphal said they had received "extremely good" rains and pastures have germinated well.

He was upbeat about the season after the area received rain that wasn't on the radar and said growers were happy.

"It's a very good start for us here, over the past couple of years we've had very reasonably good starts," Mr Westphal said.

"(The rain) started the week before Easter and it hasn't dried out since then, it's been very good.

"All the growers are very happy, the price of fertiliser is coming down and the price of chemical inputs has come down, it's been raining, everyone's happy."

Similarly, Elders Dowerin branch manager Carli Radford said it has been a relatively good start for farmers in the Dowerin area.

Ms Radford said many farmers had held off on purchasing fertiliser due to price pressure but said it was starting to stabilise as farmers were feeling more comfortable to "make a move".

While the Dowerin area hasn't received a lot of rain, it has been consistent over the past month, which was enough to kickstart seeding programs.

"A bit of early rain helped everyone kick off pretty early, which makes everyone positive, everyone should be happy," Ms Radford said.

She said a lot of farmers have moved to canola and were utilising varieties with longer coleoptiles so they could plant earlier.

Ms Radford said if anything was going to hurt people it would be frost later on in the season.

"That's just the name of the game, I suppose, it's all about timing," she said.