Agriculture Victoria seasonal risk agronomist Dale Grey, Bendigo, says early winter rains have encouraged farmers who opted to dry sow crops.
Mr Grey said a series of soil moisture probes, across the state, were showing that surface water and deep subsoil moisture was starting to link up.
“It’s going to allow for the emergence of crops, which is what we are desperately looking for now,” Mr Grey said.
“If we can start to get some deeper infiltration, it’s a profile that can be drawn upon in spring.”
But the late rain meant the season had started four to six weeks later than normal, which could lead to problems in spring and summer.
“There is going to be some exposure to heat and we are still going to need some pretty good rain, during July and August,” he said.
He said farmers would be hoping the deep soil moisture could be conserved as long as possible, so crops could continue to draw upon it.
“We are so thankful we got those rains, in the first half of the month,” he said.
“It’s a heck of a lot brighter now, than it was in the middle of May.”
Malcolm Bartholomaeus, Bartholomaeus Consulting, said the system that came through last week was as close to a break as southern regions had received.
“The crop condition through South Australia and Victoria is probably around average for this time of year, although you have to acknowledge there is not too much subsoil anywhere,” Mr Bartholomaeus said.
“We probably have the moisture to get through spring alright in these regions but conversely without soaking spring rain it will be difficult to convert potential into yield.”
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior climatologist David Martin said falls this month were roughly where you would expect them to be in relation to the long-term average for June.
Mr Martin said predictions were that the outlook for July would be dry, for a large part of southern Australia.
He said rainfall totals for June so far had been in the range of 25-100 millmetres, across most of Victoria.
The totals were close to the long-term average, but slightly below that figure in the Wimmera.
Gippsland remained below average.
The highest totals were in the elevated parts of Victoria’s north-east, with much of that falling as snow.
Wilsons Promontory reported 144mm for the month so far, but the lowest totals were in the Mallee (Mildura 18.8mm), and areas of West Gippsland and east of Latrobe Valley (15.6mm at Briagolong, and 15.8mm at Yarram).
This year’s falls are in contrast to 2017, which was Victoria’s driest June since records began in 1900.
Rainfall was very much below average across almost all of the state, with large areas where it was the lowest on record.
Just north of Shepparton, Stuart Hipwell, Wunghnu, has received 30mm of rain in the last 10 days.
Mr Hipwell said prior to this rainfall, things were looking grim.
“The recent rain’s allowed the crops to strike, we still need some soaking rains in the spring to get them through, but we’re looking a lot better now than we were a fortnight ago,” Mr Hipwell said.
He said up until the end of May, he had only seen two inches of rain fall on his property.
“Some of the crops were struck with a bit of rain in May, so some got sown in then, but because it was so dry before then, it was hard to get a lot of value out of it,” he said.
“Some crops are more advanced than others depending on when they were sown and when the rain fell.”
He’s been feeding cattle hay to get them through, but said they’re struggling.
“There’s a lot of unknown ahead of us,” he said.
“But we don’t have a crystal ball, so we’ll just have to take it as it comes.”
In West Gippsland, beef producer Nick Dilauro, Darnum has been feeding his cattle hay everyday, as it makes less mess when the paddocks get wet.
"When I bought this farm it was a mess and I don't want to see it return to that,” Mr Dilauro said.
"I am used to these cold conditions, but it has been quite tough during summer and autumn."
