Nhill farmers await the break to sow canola, as the south west remains dry

Nhill grain grower Rob Bell said they had 10 millimetres of rain at the end of March, but 13mm about one week ago.

Meanwhile, south-west Victoria farms are drier than normal, and most of the central, north central, and west and south Gippsland had already reached their average monthly rain.

"Our opening break is only around Anzac Day, we have seen that it sometimes can be a bit late, it's been patchy around Nhill as well," he said.

He said north of Nhill had received more rain, with up to 45mm at Netherby.

"The rain has germinated some seeds so we'll start cropping next week, there'll be a germination of weeds we can get a knock down on," Mr Bell said.

He said they hoped for rain from now, to allow for easier sowing with canola.

"Normally we start on vetch and beans so we can tick them off if they're dry, but with canola we need to do it right," he said.

"We had heaps of rain over harvest, it stopped raining at the start of February and we've only had a few rains around Easter.

"A lot of guys have been over with the boom sprayer a few times, and when it stopped raining it put a stop to that, so people were quite glad."

The Bureau's senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock said a strong cold front crossed South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW last week with light to moderate rainfall.

"There was rainfall for patches of southern Victoria in the 24 hours to 9am on [April 16] and for a broader area, south and east, in the 24 hrs to 9am on the 17^th," he said.

The Bureau's criteria of an autumn break is 25mm of rain in three days or 30mm in seven days after March 1.

"Using [the criteria] most of central and eastern Victoria and parts of the north and west, have had an autumn break during April," he said.

Mr Pollock said parts of the south-west were drier than average, and while there was rain forecast for the coming week, it would likely remain drier than average for April.

"Much of the central, north central and the west and south Gippsland districts have already had more than their average April rainfall (data up to April 16)," he said.