Drier conditions are on the way over Victoria, after a strong cold front brought welcome rain to large parts of the state, according to Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Peter Blake.
Strong northerly winds preceded showers and storms, on Monday. “Pretty much all of Victoria got the impact of that,” Mr Blake said.
He said cooler temperatures would follow a cold front, pushing across Victoria later this week.
”This system is not going to produce a great deal of rainfall, maybe five millimetres or less in southern Victoria, and in the north, a millimetre or less. Another front comes through on Saturday, but with less rainfall.”
Nick Williams, Branxholme, said receiving 70 millimetres of rain on Monday last week topped off what had already been a fantastic season.
"Rainfall has been good, sheep are looking good, we haven't had to provide any feed yet," Mr Williams said. "The recent rainfall will create a fresh pick for the sheep in the next week or two."
Rainfall has been good, sheep are looking good, we haven't had to provide any feed yet.
- Nick Williams, Branxholme
Mr Williams runs about 150 composite ewes on his 30-hectare property, and said the summer hadn't been too dry. "We received the odd 5-10mm of rain every two to three weeks, so there was never too long of a dry spell," he said.
"And the recent rain has definitely helped too."
Dunkeld cropper Graeme Moyle said he was currently doing earthworks, with two scrapers cleaning up drains and fixing what was washed out, last year.
Kelrowan received 44mm of rain, in this week’s weather event.
“It just means we are going to have a good germination of weeds, which we want, so we can get a good knock down, before the start of the season.”
At Creightons Creek, Mark Radford, runs around 3500 Merinos and said his properties had recorded up to 26mm, in places.
“We are still in the waiting phase, like most people, nobody is sowing anything yet,” Mr Radford said. “Hopefully we’ll spread some lime, before we get too wet.”
Mr Radford said he hoped to put in around a winter feed crop of 200 hectares of pasture, made up of ryegrass, phalaris and sub clover.
Dairy farmer Craig Dwyer, from Bullaharre near Cobden, milks a 240 head herd and said his farm picked up 30mm out of the last event.
“I am happy to call it a break – I am just kicking off seeding,” Mr Dwyer said.
He said he would only have to do half the pastures he did last season, because of the rain. “It will just basically be topping it up,” Mr Dwyer said. “It’s a very good start to what had been a pretty kind summer.
“Things didn’t get too hot, so we have had a lot more grass survive than we did last year, so we are not seeding as much.”
