Rainfall over the past week will see planting of the winter grains crop start in more key growing areas across Australia, especially in the southern States.
Thousands of farmers across in the wheatbelt will either begin their sowing program, or will see dry-sown crops come up on the back of last week’s rain.
Victoria, south-east South Australia and the Esperance region of WA all received opening rains of between 15-50mm last week, to go along with previous autumn breaks in most of WA and SA.
Esperance district farmers received good falls, generally over 25mm, which will allow them to catch up to the rest of their WA counterparts, who received good rain through April and early May.
In SA, the south-east received falls of up to 40mm to start their season, while areas that had already received a break such as the Yorke Peninsula got follow-up rain.
In Victoria, the grainbelt had a reasonable break.
Most parts of the Wimmera and the Western District received around 30mm, while in the Mallee and through north-east Victoria, 15-20mm fell.
In NSW and Qld, it was not as good news, where most key grain producing areas again missed out.
In NSW, the optimism of the good subsoil moisture profile generated by the summer rains from Dubbo, NSW, northwards is starting to wane in places, as the optimum sowing window begins to close.
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