“WHEN everyone’s dams are full that is when we will all be happy,” says Bethungra farmer Bill Muller.
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Mr Muller runs a specialist prime lamb operation at “Nunlong”, and relies on grazing crops throughout the autumn and winter months.
“We have had 200 millimetres here for April which is fantastic,” he said.
“This sets us up fairly good pasture wise,” he said.
“But we still need run off water to fill empty dams,” he said.
Mr Muller said some early sown oat and wheat crops had responded well to the rain and the lucerene was looking good too.
“As long as we have a fantastic finish at the end now, things will be looking good,” he said.
Mr Muller said in years past Riverina farmers had received good rain in autumn only to watch the season deteriorate towards September and October.
He said good follow up rain was needed at the end of the winter cropping season too.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology falls of up to 52mm were recorded at Tumut in the last week, 34mm at Lockhart, 26mm at Wagga and 15mm at Cootamundra.
To the south cropping specialists around Finley have welcomed the rain too.
“The soaking rain of 40mm last week came later than last season’s break … but it is perfectly timed to allow dry-sown canola to germinate,” said agricultural consultant John Lacy.
“Before the rain it had been too dry for weed germinations but we will now get a germination of weeds which will be good for weed control before sowing,” he said.
“It will allow the use of two modes of weed control –mixtures of knockdown and pre-sowing herbicides.”
Mr Lacy said Finley Discussion Group results showed the highest yielding canola crops had been sown by the end of April so canola should be sown first.
“How early to sow wheat is a bigger question. Last season we had high late April to mid May temperatures which led to fast growth in early sown wheat and plants setting one less tiller than normal,” he said.