Farmers are working with the weather to put pesticides and herbicides on their crops, according to South East agronomists.
Landmark Naracoorte agronomist Tom Cooper said his region had received 330 millimetres of rain for the year as of Monday – 70mm more compared to the same period in 2016.
A potential risk for some broadacre croppers in Mr Cooper’s area might be that the ground gets too wet throughout the rest of winter.
Cox Rural Keith senior agronomist Scott Hutchings said 242.5mm of rain had been recorded at Keith this year, which was close to long-term averages.
But the NRM recording station south of Keith registered more than 325mm this year to-date, which was well above average.
“Overall, except for a dry June, it has been an exceptional start to the season with above average rain in April and May and solid rains so far in July and more forecast in the short-term,” he said.
Mr Hutchings said pasture growth was exceptional due to the early significant rains, which was beneficial for ewes having green feed to lamb down on.
The agronomists said some early season fungicides had been applied, as had insecticides where needed and nutritional applications.
Nitrogen applications are occurring on canola and cereals.
They said most growers were able to start sowing on time, but some were caught out with the strong opening break.
“Strong rainfall and moisture throughout seeding did start to cause some problems, and this led to a prolonged and staggered seeding program in some areas,” Mr Cooper said.
Cereals ranged from being at two-leaf to late tillering, canola is at four-leaf to cabbaging, beans might be up to early canopy closure and legumes have good ground cover with 15 centimetre to 20cm growth.
Mr Cooper said some farmers changed their seeding programs to accommodate the later seeding.
For example, some canola was replaced with barley.
He said some re-sowing was done because of wet conditions and bird damage.
Plenty of rain for Frys at Frances
South East farmer Tim Fry says he is having one of his best seasons ever.
Mr Fry owns two SE properties, one of which is Wallabrook – a 405-hectare mixed-use property 13 kilometres south of Frances.
He grows wheat, oats, fiesta beans and small seeds including lucerne, subclover and shaftal.
He runs 1000 first-cross ewes mated to Poll Dorset rams.
Mr Fry said Wallabrook’s opening rain – 45mm – was received in early March, two months earlier than normal.
“I thought it was early but we got rain three weeks later, and the season kicked off from there,” he said.
Mr Fry started seeding on May 1, two to three weeks earlier than than normal.
“People in the area were having trouble getting air seeders over the country because of the wet conditions,” he said.
“June was a dry month; we didn’t receive much rain at all, which was a good thing as we didn’t need it. But the rain started again in July.”
Snails had been of concern, particularly with the wet summer and a good green bridge that allowed them to breed.
He did not bait for mice, although they were present.