MAITLAND cropper Paul Jarrett was relatively confident dry sowing his crops from April 10, following the use of a chaff deck at harvest but soil soaking rainfall in the past few months has also boosted his confidence about the season ahead.
"The chaff deck keeps the majority of weed seeds within our controlled-traffic wheel tracks," he said.
"We know we can then get a crop up early that's not too weedy."
But after one of the driest starts to the year on record, rain in early May certainly boosted that confidence.
"We have had up to 100 millimetres in the past two months - 55mm in May and another 35mm last week," said Mr Jarrett, who crops 2650 hectares of wheat, durum, lentils and barley with wife Carly.
"Cereals are at the four to five-leaf stage to early tillering and lentils are at four-node stage, so that rain will keep them on the right track."
SA agronomists are also optimistic about the season's potential post rainfall in the past week.
Until last week, soil moisture levels across SA were below average after a lack of summer and autumn rain caused soil profiles to dry out significantly.
AW Vater and Co agronomist Zack Zweck said before soaking rain arrived, Yorke Peninsula paddocks had "non-existent" soil moisture.
"Going into seeding it was non-existent - moisture was only available at about one metre deep," he said.
"The rain in the past week was the first soil moisture we have had for the year."
Looking ahead, Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Darren Ray said winter rainfall for June to August was likely to be below average in SA.
But he said there was a significant chance that areas unlikely to exceed median rainfall would receive enough rain to sustain crops until spring 2019, in particular crops with stored soil moisture from May.
Most cropping regions had average levels of soil moisture in May with parts of the Eyre Peninsula and lower YP well-above average.
"This indicates the top 1m is about average but the deeper soil moisture levels are still quite a bit drier than average," Mr Ray said.
"There is not a lot of rainfall showing for the end of the month and much of the state is still below average."
Mr Ray said the positive Indian Ocean Dipole had "kicked in" and this was likely to push warmer and drier than average conditions across SA throughout winter and spring.
Eyre Peninsula agronomist Tristan Baldock, Buckleboo, said many soil types had become non-wetting profiles.
"It has been so dry this year so a lot of sandy soils have turned into non-wetting and a crop has not emerged," he said.
"The soils have always had that attribute but there has always been enough moisture through the profile to get it going."
Rural Directions agronomist Richard Saunders, Loxton, said southern and northern Mallee farmers had less soil moisture this year than during the same period last season.
"The soil could not be any drier than it is - if we have follow-up rain and no wind it will help," he said.
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