SA's southern agricultural areas may have been hoping for an Anzac Day break but it was the northern pastoral areas and Far West Coast which benefitted most from a cold front which swept across the state earlier this week.
Among the highest rainfall tallies according to the Bureay of Meteorology were 68.6 millimetres at Woomera, 63.2mm in the Gammon Ranges at Moolawatana and 49.8mm at Arkaroola.
Many other areas have received 20-40mm.
This has caused some issues for outback travellers, including those stuck on the Oodnadatta Track, but for pastoralists it is welcome follow up rain from the late January falls.
At Mt Eba Station via Glendambo nearly 40mm of rainfall on Monday has put a halt to shearing where only about a quarter of the 25,000 sheep have been shorn so far.
Co-owner Margie Whittlesea says the start of shearing was already delayed a month after the station received 120mm in January and February. This rain would cause further delays although she is not complaining.
"We'll take the rain every time out here, you never know when your next rain is going to be," she said.
"Depending on the weather and if the sun is shining we might get going again Thursday afternoon or Friday but they are talking more rain again on Friday."
She says the latest rain means they have now had 160mm for 2022 more than 2021 and far exceeds 2018 and 2019 when only 65mm and 42mm fell, although 2020 delivered them a change of seasonal fortunes with 317mm.
"We are at our maximum pastoral rating now and there is so much feed around, we just need wool prices to lift and it will all be good," she said.
At Dulkaninna Station, 80kms north of Marree, David and Jess Bell, received a welcome 33mm adding to the 303mm over a 12 day period in late January-early February.
Mr Bell says it is "perfect timing" to have the late season front come through, with April rainfall not that common.
"We are lucky we have bores and the dams were nearly full from early in the year but this will be good feed for us, hopefully it won't come in cold for at least a couple of weeks and we can make the most of it growing feed," he said.
A severe five year drought saw the Bells destock to just 500 cattle from up to 1500 head but they are gradually rebuilding numbers opting to do this by breeding up rather than paying high cattle prices to buy back in.
"We have kept a few heifers so we are up to 800 to 900 (head), we are slowly getting there," he said.
The Livestock SA northern region chairman said it had been a good start to the year for most especially those who were on their third or fourth rain for the season.
"It is such a big area that there are always gaps (in rainfall) here and there but generally people are pretty happy."
"We really need to put together at least a year or two of average to above average years to get our herds and businesses back up and running," Mr Bell said.
West Coast mixed farmer Lynton Murray had among the highest falls in the state with 60mm falling on his Penong property on Monday exactly a week after 30mm.
He is thankful for the rains after the area missed out earlier in the year when Eastern EP recorded big falls.
"We had a few points in March, the highest rainfall in February was about 1.5mm and in January it was 6mm, it has been very dry since harvest but last week's rain has given us moisture, germinated some weeds and will give us feed for the sheep," he said.
"It is still a bit wet to start seeding with some soggy parts in the paddocks but in the later part of week we will get going.".
Mr Murray said high input costs were "playing on his mind" but the good break to the season had given him confidence at least for a few months.
"Hopefully it is not like last year, 2021 was one of those seasons that really teased us, we experienced plenty of ups and downs and at the end the rains were scattered a long way apart," he said.
On the eastern coast of the Eyre Peninsula, "patchy" rains have been welcomed by croppers, with some well into their seeding programs.
Up to 40mm has fallen on some properties around Cleve in the past two weeks, giving farmers a link up rain between the January storms and the growing season.
Cowell cropper Tim Franklin said he had received 20-30mm over different blocks during the past two weeks.
Mr Franklin has already started planting lupins, oats, canola and barley and expects to begin on wheat any day now.
"We received a bit of rain on the Thursday before Easter weekend and we'd already done a bit of seeding before that," he said.
"The rain came in three different systems and has been patchy across the district."It'd be nice to see a solid 10-20mm across the whole district in one hit, rather than these bits and pieces.
"In saying that, we've got enough moisture to keep seeding for a while. If we can get a few drops along the way we should be able to get through seeding with no complaints hopefully."
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