A generally dry September and October has seen earlier crop yield potential not fully realised.
As harvest moves south, the impact of heavy rains in parts of the Mallee in December 2018 is being realised in grain yields in those areas.
Yields in many areas have hinged on the stored moisture, with farmers reporting that apart from the deluge in summer, rainfall during the 2019 growing period had been at "drought levels".
Birchip grain growers Julie and Leigh Weir and son Spencer are into a cropping program of more than 2600 hectares that included canola, cereals and pulses.
Leigh Weir said this year's crop yield was two years in the making.
The 2018 harvest was poor with little harvested, before the summer rain dumped up to 230 millimetres across his and surrounding farms.
He said in early December they were considering their 2019 crop options when the rain came.
"After the rain it was a no-brainer, we went all out conserving the moisture which gave us a full profile," he said.
"The year was lean and tight, we didn't get rain until May and then we got small, but regular falls through until spring when we had nothing."
So far the Weirs were getting 1.6 to 2 tonnes a hectare for canola and around 4.5 tonnes/ha on barley.
Lee Hogan, Birchip, was another that benefited from the 2018 summer rains.
He was storing barley in sausage bags on farm before deciding on marketing options.
Landmark agronomist Bruce Adriaans, Birchip, said generally locally growers were pretty happy.
"We consider ourselves fortunate, the subsoil moisture was certainly the driver for the year, particularly when only 20mm fell in September and none in October," he said.
"That's when the subsoil moisture came into play.
"Growers deserve credit when faced with a very negative weather forecast, they invested in fertiliser, particularly nitrogen, and looked after their crops despite the forecast."
Further north, Landmark agronomist Nathan Sydes, Manangatang, said the harvest across his region had been widely variable in terms of yield and quality.
Mr Sydes said results were all over the place, but generally it was a case of better than just "getting out of jail".
He said vetch and oat hay had yielded well.