After getting one of the better starts to a growing season in recent years, another widespread rain event across the Mallee over the weekend has delivered a very welcome boost to winter crops at an important stage of development.
By early Monday morning, selected Bureau of Meteorology sites were showing some very handy totals across the region.
Mildura had received around 32mm, Hopetoun around 32mm, Walpeup about 28mm and Swan Hill around 28mm. Further south and east, Charlton was around 31mm, while Kerang had picked up around 37mm.
As always with Mallee rain, totals can vary considerably from one paddock to another, but the important part of this event is that useful rain has fallen across a large area of dryland cropping country.
A good start to the season
Conditions earlier in the year gave many growers the opportunity to get crops established with moisture underneath them.
Useful rainfall during late summer and autumn improved soil moisture across parts of Victoria and helped provide favourable conditions for sowing and crop establishment.
For dryland growers, getting that start can make an enormous difference. Instead of putting seed into completely dry country and waiting for the season to break, many paddocks went into winter with crops already established and moisture in the profile.
The video here was filmed during seeding earlier this season and gives a look at where this year's crop began.
A few months later, many of those same paddocks have now received another valuable soaking, adding to the moisture already stored in the soil.
That makes this weekend's rain much more than simply a decent fall. It is another piece of the season falling into place.
Wheat, barley, lentils, canola and other winter crops are moving towards an important part of their development, and having good moisture available heading towards spring gives growers something to work with.
Still a long way to harvest
Of course, nobody is putting the header on the paddock in August.
There is still plenty that can happen between now and harvest, and timely rain through spring will remain important, particularly across the lower rainfall parts of the Mallee.
A hot or dry finish can quickly change the outlook, which is something Mallee farmers know better than most.
But compared with seasons where crops spend winter hanging on from one small rain to the next, there is certainly plenty to be positive about at the moment.
ABARES has forecast Victorian winter crop production at around 9.7 million tonnes for 2026/27, around 10 per cent above the ten year average, although the final result will depend heavily on conditions through the remainder of winter and spring.
Another handy top up
For Mallee growers who managed to get crops away with moisture underneath them earlier this year, this weekend's rain is exactly the sort of follow up they would have been hoping for.
The season still has a long way to run, but for the moment there is some good news coming out of the paddocks.
A good start to the season has just been given another very handy top up.
Rainfall figures are based on selected Bureau of Meteorology observation sites and may vary considerably between individual farms and districts.