Canola is going into dry soil at Bruce Rock this week.
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Stephen and Felicity Dolton and Stephen's parents Ian and Anne started their annual seeding program with the early-maturing Nuseed Emu TF variety that has been found to perform well in low and medium rainfall zones.
They plan to sow 1500 hectares of canola, but are keeping a close watch on the long range forecasts to see if this might change.
Their wheat program consists of Scepter, Vixen and Kinsei and the barley variety used is Maximus.
The Doltons have an 18 metre DBS seeding rig and seeding depths vary from shallow for canola to deeper for cereals and lupins.
They use MAP fertiliser at the recommended rate and are sowing at a rate of two kilograms per hectare for canola and 50-60kg/ha for wheat and barley.
The Doltons received between 90 and 140 millimetres of rain during the summer months across different parts of their property.
"The moisture is in the subsoil at a depth of about 10 centimetres, which gives us some confidence," said Stephen Dolton.
"We only need a small rain event now to boost that confidence.
"We are all looking to the skies.
"But we need to get on with seeding to get through our program."
Mr Dolton said the average break on the farm was May 21, so there were several weeks to go before things got too concerning.
"But we want to jag some rain before then," he said.
"If it stays dry to the middle of May we might change-up varieties and/or pull out some hectares of canola or oats."
