Victoria's heatwave set to end soon

"It's hot! Damn hot! Real hot!"

But forget Vietnam, Victoria is in the middle of a heatwave.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Bri Macpherson said the humidity was making conditions unpleasant, for most of Victoria.

"Hopefully it will ease off, in the next few days, as we get a bit of cloud and rain, increasing, later in the week," Ms Macpherson said.

"We have a high pressure system, sitting over the Tasman Sea, not going anywhere, and directing northerly winds over us."

That was coupled with moist air, from the Coral Sea, which was causing the humidity.

Ms Macpherson said temperatures were up along the mid to high 30's, along the Murray River.

Temperatures in the ranges and along the coast were a little bit cooler.

"Over the next few days there will be some relief, there is a bit of movement in the weather pattern, there's a trough over eastern South Australia."

She said it was expected to move into western Victoria on Thursday, moving into the rest of the state on Friday.

"On Friday, we see a bit more of a change, really - ahead of that, we might see cloud increasing, there are potential showers and thunderstorms and maybe some rainfall as well."

Purnim beef producer Tim Netherway said his 700 cow herd was very dehydrated,

"They are struggling, they are not going to die, but I have never seen cattle drink that much water," he said.

In the last eight or 10 weeks, the area had received only 18 millimetres of rain.

"Down here, that's unbelievable, it's extremely exceptional, he said.

While the temperatures had been around 33-34 degrees, the wind had been blowing out of the north.

"Certainly it's been a different year," he said.

"I am going to put another bore down, I was going to do that anyway, I am pulling water out of a bore that's 12 metres deep, but I have a jet pump that's going 24 hours a day.

"That's farming."

Stony Point dairy farmer Doug Hanks said he was digging drains and there was no water in the holes, but the soil was still moist down to a metre.

"In the last 10 days it's really, really dried off, we have had this real, dry, easterly wind that's taken the moisture out of everything," Mr Hanks said.

"At the moment, the cows are getting about 50 per cent of their ration, out of the paddocks, and the other 50pc cent is being hand fed.

"In about a week's time it will be 75pc-80pc, which will be hand fed."

He said he'd bought in grain and clover hay.

"We're feeding more grain in the bale, to take advantage of the milk price - there is margin to be made with grain and hay."

The cattle had been turned into paddocks with shade and natural shelter belts, on the hot days.

"Even if we got 22 millimetres of rain, the grass will still respond, it's not too late."

Until the end of November, he said he was still getting bogged.

Lah sheep, grains and pulse grower David Drage said there'd been no rain and the area was definitely experiencing heatwave conditions.

"I was looking at data from my weather station, and there's only been about one hour, in the last 72 hours, where it was suitable for spraying, so nothing much is happening," he said.

He was shearing last week - 'but there is very little work being done between 12 and 4pm, for obvious reasons."

While it had reached the mid 30's during the day, nighttime temperatures of up to 24 degrees were causing issues.

"The killer has been the cumulative heat hours."

"It's that harvest tidy up period, I've been loading the last couple of truckloads of grain from harvest, it's 'catch-up' time, really.

"It's getting to the stage where you are looking at the things you should be doing, and realising we will be in February, in a week's time.

"We can't spend too much more time doing nothing."