Seeding season coming to a close across SA while growers wait for wet

On Yorke Peninsula, independent agronomist Craig Wissell, Ardrossan, says the region has had about 45mm of rain this year, when it would typically experience at least 230mm by now and an average of 500mm for the year.

Despite the lack of rain, croppers were well into their seeding programs, with most finished already.

"The crops have been sown at the traditional time of mid-April, but a lot of those crops aren't even out of the ground yet," he said.

"The cut-off to stop seeding would be mid-June, but with those crops not out of the ground yet it doesn't make much of a difference when they were sown."

Mr Wissell said this could lead to serious yield penalties if there wasn't rain soon to get crops out of the ground.

Not the only challenge for the season ahead, Mr Wissell said growers would have a compacted busy period once a rain event does happen to get on top of weed control promptly.

"There are some areas which are patchy where it's been sandier and the moisture held on a bit longer and the crops have emerged, but that might only be 10pc of the paddock and the rest is bone dry," he said.

"It's gonna be hard to manage those crops going forward because they're going to be all at different growth stages.

"They'll have a lot of work to do to get all the applications done at the right time."

With no rain to allow pre-emergent chemicals to work, Mr Wissell said he had also suggested growers look at haircut knockdowns when a rainfall event does come to get grass control, assuming crops had not yet come through.

Meanwhile, Richard Saunders, Pinion Advisory, said it was a tale of two cities in the northern Mallee.

"You've got the western northern Mallee, and then you got sort of east of Loxton," he said.

"Now east of Loxton, the guys are all finished - they've got crop up, and it's looking okay because those guys got reasonable sort of falls leading up including some on Easter Monday.

"On the Waikerie side, they still sowing and they haven't received anywhere near as much as they wanted, so they're behind the eight ball."

With such minimal rainfall this year, Mr Saunders said it was likely the region wouldn't meet it's average tally for the year.

"Looking at Loxton rainfall since 1900, a January to May total of 40mm or less has only occurred 18 times," he said.

"Only one of those years has hit an average year.

"16 of those years have all been less than decile 4, so if you're playing the numbers, it's not looking great for the rest of the year."

Despite the less-than-ideal history, Mr Saunders said the season ahead was anyone's guess at this point.

"We do get those duplex years when it's really dry during the first half of year and a wet second half, but that's only occurred about seven times in the last 125 years, so it's not a common event," he said.

"You might get a really good BoM forecast, but farmers know a few high temperatures during flowering time can really decimate yields.

"We've also still got the threat of frost hanging over us, which we know to be more prevalent during dry winters."

Scott Hutchings, Cox Rural Keith, said most of the significant cropping enterprises in his region were well into seeding, but many others had not started yet.

"A lot of farmers who are smaller haven't started and a lot of farmers on very sandy soils haven't started particularly on our non-wetting sandy soils," he said.

"Seeding has been really compacted though because of a lot of people were reluctant to start until they could see some sort of forecast of rain.

"The bolder clients have put in their programs dry and the majority of those crops have been put in without a pre-emergent herbicide."

While seeding is still ongoing, Mr Hutchings said growers had trigger points where they knew a crop would have to go in regardless of the weather.

"If they got to the end of end of May and could not see a for a decent forecast or rain in the next 14 days, they were going to drop their canola or reduce their legume program," he said.

"A lot of guys ended up seeding before that last rain and getting it in right towards the end.

"But some have dropped canola for crops that give them more flexibility and diversity, like oats, where they have the opportunity to graze, do hay or take through for a milling crop and the same with barley."

After only 31 millimetres of rain for the year, Pinery graingrower Richard Fabry said it was a nervous "waiting game" to see if his crops would emerge "properly".

Richard, who farms with partner Skye Colley and parents Cliff and Judith Fabry, finished seeding two weeks ago and was eagerly awaiting more wet weather. They only recorded 7mm last week.

"We've just been out spreading snail bait and our remaining fertiliser, and cleaning up around the place, while we wait," he said.

"Some paddocks have germinated, but now it's just a big waiting game to make sure everything is going to emerge properly.

"We have a lot of moisture down deep, which will be beneficial, we just need a good rain to reach it from the top."

The Fabrys started dry sowing at end of April and have put in 1750 hectares of wheat, barley and lentils.

Richard said the slow start reminded him of the 2010 season.

"That season still turned out to be a reasonable year, we just need it to start raining, even just average rainfall, as long as the weather stays mild," he said.

Richard said one blessing has been the lack of mice spotted at seeding.

"We saw so many around at harvest that we were concerned, but I wonder if the dry has reduced numbers," he said.

"We still baited everything, because our stripper front and disc seeder system leaves us at-risk, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the lack of damage out there so far."