Planting has started in parts of the north, as Easter brings welcome rain

Rainfall totals were mixed, with the Bureau of Meteorology saying the Mallee and northern country largely missed out on Easter showers and storms.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Dean Narramore said Good Friday saw most of the heaviest falls for most locations.

"It was a cold, wet and windy Easter weekend over much of south-eastern Australia and that was due to a strong cold front, which brought severe thunderstorms through parts of Queensland, NSW and Victoria," Mr Narramore said.

The front was followed by cold and gusty south-westerly winds.

He said the next weather system was likely to bring widespread showers and possible thunderstorms, with falls of between 5-10 millimetres.

"Pretty much over the four days of the Easter break we have seen the heaviest falls Mt Baw Baw, at 98mm, Mount William, the Grampians, had 88mm and Mallacoota had 70mm," he said.

"The Mallee and north country missed out, with most of the rain falling in central and eastern Victoria."

Nhill received 9.2mm on Good Friday, Mildura 0.4mm, Ouyen only 5.8mm, while Horsham recorded 24mm and smaller totals on the other days.

Good Friday totals for Casterton were 24.8mm and Dartmoor had 39.6mm., while Colac received a total of 17.3mm over three days.

Wyuna received 18mm.

READ MORE: Ideal wet conditions in Victoria ahead of autumn break

The development of Cyclone Isla, off the Western Australian coast should have brought more good news for primary producers, Mr Narramore said.

"Normally that's a good sign, but it looks like this time not so much," he said.

Another system would move across the state from the middle of the week, but it would only bring 5-10mm of rain.

'"Then we will see another cold front, which is linking in with the cyclone that will bring heavy rain to WA and western South Australia," he said.

"But, unfortunately, by the time it gets to eastern SA and western Victoria it's going to really weaken so we may only see a few light showers on the Friday and Saturday."

Next week, a "couple of weak fronts" would pass over but only bring a couple of millimetres of rain.

Dairy farmer Con Glennen is milking 400 head of cattle at Noorat, south-west Victoria.

"We are away - it was very welcome, it was absolutely excellent rain," Mr Glennen said.

"We have a heap of pasture in there and more to go."The property received 31mm of rain over Easter.

"I am chasing up grass seed and fertiliser, as we speak," he said.

But he said it was "very hit and miss", with reports of 100mm of rain on some properties to the north.

Mixed farmer Peter Tuohey, Pyramid Hill, said he'd made a start to dry sowing, after only 11mm of rain.

"There has been some good rain through the Wimmera, in central Victoria and probably up into the north-east, " Mr Tuohey said.

"With the forecast for this week for more chance of showers and rain, pretty much most farmers will be making a start," he said.

"Easter is done and dusted so everybody will be into it, pretty well."

He said anywhere that had more than 30mm would classify it as an autumn break.

"In the Mallee, it's not wet enough to call it an autumn break," he said.

He was currently planting barley, before going onto vetch and would also be putting in wheat, canola and field peas, as well as running 1000 sheep.

He said he expected the year to be dry, on top of good subsoil moisture.

"That will help later in the year, once we get crops up," he said.

"Hopefully we can get enough moisture to meet it up.

"Particularly in our country, the topsoil is really dry and compacted because of all the rain."

Ryan Milgate has properties at Minyip, where 14mm fell and Hall's Gap, which received between 40-50mm.

"It's not too bad, actually, with a bit more coming," Mr Milgate said.

"Considering the dry start that was forecast, it's looking pretty positive."

He said he would probably start sowing by the end of the month but was already getting excellent germination in the paddocks.

"We will get a good early knock down and and good early start, so you couldn't ask for much more than that.

"I would probably call it to the break

"We had a bit of rain a fortnight earlier - it was a bit patchy, but that got things started.

"The rain at Easter pretty much fired it up."

He said he was putting in wheat, barley, lentils. a "bit of canola." and some vetch hay.

"We still have significant subsoil moisture, to get some rain and get a start is exactly what we are looking for."

He said ewes were due to lamb at the Hall's Gap block in the coming weeks, "so this is perfect."

Matt Rohde, Lorquon, received 30-40mm over Easter and has started to plant vetch.

He'll be growing wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas and canola as well, this season.

"Last year we had big thunderstorm with up to 100mm at the end of February so we started on our brown manured vetch, on the first week of March," he said.

"This year, I guess we just got behind with everything."

It had been a relatively dry summer, with only a few showers coming through.

"We thought we would get into it and try and get the vetch up and going," he said.

"We are not going to make hay out of it, so the earlier we can get it up the earlier we can spray it out and then start conserving moisture for the following year.

"It's definitely a good start - I guess anything in April could be classified as an autumn break, especially given the short term outlook," he said.

"On the weekend they are talking 10-20mm so I think if we had a couple more rain events come through, we would definitely call that the break."

The rain had not been widespread.

"You head further north and east and the rainfall totals were definitely lighter."

The vetch was a trial run, to ensure machinery didn't need any further attention -"especially when we have had things apart and put them back together - we need to make sure everything is right to go," he said.