A cold front, passing through Victoria on the weekend, brought good rain to the central parts of the state.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) duty forecaster Tom Delamott said nearly 21 millimetres of rain was recorded in Ballarat on Saturday, with a further 1.5mm on Sunday.
“We had a cold front, moving through on Saturday evening into Sunday morning, with a few showers, persisting right through Sunday, in a very cold, south-westerly flow, following the front,” Mr Delmott said.
He said the falls were consistent, across the centre of the state, with lower recordings in the north.
“We are in between fronts, at the moment; we do expect another front to move through on Tuesday, with rain in the south-west of the state and the rest of Victoria, by early afternoon.”
He said the next front would be accompanied by cold air, resulting in showers and small hail.
“At the moment, the best falls are going to be around the eastern ranges, were we may see between 10-22mm, elsewhere that will be less than 10mm and that will grade to less than 5mm over the northern half of the state.”
The front would be accompanied by fresh north-westerly winds, which would swing south-westerly later in the day.
“It will be fairly similar to what we had come through, on Saturday.”
Boort cropper Cam Parker said his property had recieved only 4.5-7mm over the weekend.
He said the croper were enjoying the rain and showers, but it was now a waiting game, to finish his program, as the paddocks were too wet to traffic.
“We'll be all done within a few days, once we can get on paddocks again,” Mr Parker said.
Mouse baiting and monitoring early emerging crops for insects and weeds was currently being carried out.
“It won't be long until we're looking to start in crop herbicide and insect management,” he said.
Cropper Matt Rohde, Lorquon and Jeparit, said the properties had 12mm of rain, in the last couple of days.
“All the crop is in and up, apart from field peas, which we will start sowing shortly,” Mr Rohde said.
Beaufort sheep farmer Ian Porter said while there hadn’t been a frost in the area, it was still very cold.
The property, Westleigh, picked up 23mm of rain, in the last few days, with the heaviest fall yesterday.
“There’s a bit of a lull in lambing, which is a good thing, when this weather comes through.”
Travis Mitchell, Woomelang, has a 2200 hectares under wheat, barley, canola and lentils.
He said the property had six mm of follow up rain, on the weekend, after 18mm, the week before.
“It’s looking quite good at the moment,” Mr Mitchell said.
Sowing had been completed and he was now spreading fertiliser.
He said he was expecting a frost, later in the week, “it might control a few of the mice, but that’s probably wishful thinking,” he said.
‘It won’t make any difference to the crops, they are not old enough for it to hurt them,” he said.
“I’ll never say never to more rain, but I think we’ll be right, for a couple of weeks.”
But Orbost dairy farmer Chris Nixon said the region had experienced a dry autumn.
“The grass is not growing, like we’d expect and the dams are low,” Mr Nixon said.
The area had mainly experienced showers, which had greened up the country.
“If it’s raining in the Mallee, we don’t get rain here,” he said.
“We haven’t been able to develop a proper feed wedge, going into winter.”
