THE AUTUMN sowing season is progressing positively down the east coast, with grower confidence generally solid in spite of the long term forecast for a drier than average year.
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In particular, parts of the southern NSW cropping belt and southern and western Victoria are off to a flyer following some of the best early autumn rainfall in recent memory.
Further to the north, there are patches of northern NSW where storm-driven rain has spirits high but generally northern NSW and southern Queensland remain dry, although there is a solid bank of subsoil moisture following last year's record-breaking flooding.
Justin Everitt, NSW Farmers Association grains committee chair and farmer at Brocklesby, near Howlong in the southern Riverina, said the majority of southern NSW was enjoying a good start to the season.
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He said there had been patches of his own region in the southern Riverina where it had got too wet following successive rain events through April.
"It is the old mixed bag, you've got some blokes who have finished nearly everything and the crop is well and truly starting to poke through and others where they have had to pull up and are waiting for the paddocks to dry up a little bit."
"Places like Henty and Culcairn have had some fairly heavy dumps so it is a little slow."
However, he said the majority of growers were happy to have a bank of moisture given the odds are in favour of a drier than average growing season.
Mr Everitt said the early break had given farmers a chance to get a solid knockdown of weeds without missing the optimum sowing window.
"It's been a great chance to rotate a few of those herbicides which is always welcome."
In terms of pests, he said the wet conditions had meant there was a lot of concern about slugs, particularly in canola, while mice were also being closely monitored.
Through the north of the state Oscar Pearse, Moree, said there had been a strip of storms passing from west of Moree through a band to his own area towards Pallamallawa.
"It's been a good start for us in this exact location, we managed to jag just about every storm, but you don't have to go too far and it gets very dry," he said.
Further north Brendan Taylor, AgForce grains president and farmer at Warra, on the western Downs, said southern Queensland remained dry, but added farmers were buoyed by good subsoil moisture.
"We'd desperately love a good 20-30mm to allow the moisture bands to link up, but it is still very early in the planting window," he said.
He said there had been deep planting of long-season varieties such as Sun Max already, while growers will also look at chickpeas later in the planting window as a means to mix up the cereal heavy winter cropping rotations of recent years.
In Victoria, Wimmera farmer Rob Ruwoldt, Kewell, north of Horsham, said it had been a good start.
"We've had some nice autumn rain early in April and it's been ideal since then, some little showers have kept it damp on top but not enough to hold up planting significantly," he said.
"Most of the Wimmera has had a pretty good start and there's plenty of stored moisture."
He nominated slugs as a potential problem saying the farm business was undertaking a heavy baiting program.
"It's a pretty big cost but the damage at emergence is hard to recover so you just have to do it."
Further north in the state the mood is not so optimistic.
Ian Hastings, Ouyen, said it remained dry.
"The rain has been passing further to the south, through the southern Mallee and has not made its way up here," he said.
"Given the forecast is for a dry spring, we'd ideally like to get the crop in early and get it going in the autumn so it is more resilient to withstand any dry spells in the spring."
However he said he hoped the subsoil moisture would aid growers push towards average yields in the low rainfall zone portions of the Mallee.
"It will just be a matter of getting enough rain to allow the crops to push their roots down into the moisture."