Wimmera-Mallee farmers are sowing after the autumn break

Craig Launer and his two sons Riley and Shannon are sowing canola for the first time in 20 years after a promising autumn break.

They manage their farm together at Netherby, were they run 450 ewes and will grow canola, barley, vetch, wheat, lentils and legumes this season.

"We all want that Anzac Day rain or before then, and now I'm just blown away," Mr Launer said.

"We've had 30 millimetres for April, normally we can't get a decent break in the season until mid-May.

"The conditions are almost too good to be true; it's near perfect at the moment but we could do with a bit more rain, and there's a chance of rain later this week."

He said they prioritised improving nitrogen levels in the soil, and grew legumes as a natural source of nitrogen.

"We call [the land] Mallee country to rising loamy country and even sand, nearly pure sand," he said.

"We'll work on running with legumes and we'll come back next year with wheat, come back to barley then vetch, it takes the risk out of it."

He said so far, they had sown canola, 20 hectares of barley that will be used for sheep feed and about 160 hectares of vetch.

"We have good stored moisture from last year, we're 300mm rainfall [annually] out here," he said.

"We can get 12-15 inches of rain out here for the year - that's pretty normal - but last year we had 24 [inches].

"I believe everything is growing so well now because there's moisture in the ground, and we have warm days."

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He said challenges during last year's growing included battling grey mould, particularly in one lentil variety after having success with them the year prior.

"You don't have a spring like this very often," he said.

"I believe we have very good country for growing if you can add water to it, it's very resilient.

"The last couple of seasons have been good, average seasons, and last year was above average on our cereals.

"The wet spring caused issues in our lentils especially, and even faba beans."

He said he hoped they would have another 5-10mm of rain this week.

The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a 70 per cent chance of rain for Nhill and district today, but between 0-3mm of rain.

"This is very heavy country, it's very thirsty country, if we only get our 300mm of rain on this country it will struggle to grow a decent drop so we keep it simple," he said.

"To me, the last real wet here was in 1991 when our eldest son Shannon was born."

His younger son Riley said their agronomist encouraged them to try canola and they decided to take the plunge after 20 years.

"There's so much moisture around, we thought 'why not?', so it's pretty exciting," he said.

"We've had a very exciting start, the canola has a bit more risk but more reward too.

"With the rain we've had, particularly in the last few weeks, there are lots of people in this area that are doing canola this year."

Another new addition to the Launers' farm included sowing lupins on their sandier country.

"It's the first time I've ever sown them," he said.

"We only sow them because you can't grow vetch on this ground, a fair few people grow them and it's another option for us because it puts nitrogen back in the ground."

Nhill grower Darcy Honeyman was also working to finish sowing his canola, which he grew every year.

"Once we finish this, that'll be canola done and then we'll sit tight to see what happens with the rain," he said.

"Then we'll do hay or wheat depending on how much rain we get during the rest of the week."

He said they started a week earlier than usual because of the autumn break, but would keep production plans similar to previous years.

"It's much of a muchness, you can't alter too many things on a year like last year," he said.

"[Prices] have been really good the past couple of years, we've had above-average rainfall and it's suited us quite well."

The Bureau's Nhill aerodrome weather station has recorded 46.6mm this year to date, and 28.4mm in March.

In March 2022, the weather station recorded 16.2mm of rain with its wettest day on March 2.

Nhill's farmers would need another 10mm of rain to receive a similar rain total to April last year, which the Bureau rain gauge recorded as 37.8mm of rain.

"It's good, [the rain] probably hurried things a long being such an early start," Mr Honeyman said.

"We probably started a week earlier than we usually would, especially with canola."

Meanwhile in Wilkur, Ken Hinkley, KY Pastoral Co, said he planted above-average quantities of canola, barley, lentils and vetch on his 10,000-hectare operation.

He has also sheep feed planted for his 1100 ewes and 400 wethers.

"We've put together a reasonable plan knowing we've got deep moisture," he said.

"If the weather is the right way in that dry finish then the crops will access the deeper moisture and will head up quite well.

"We're going pretty well to plan, we were fortunate that we didn't have a lot of summer rain."

He said October was their wettest month last year with those conditions following into harvest before it turned dry.

"After the massive wet in October, it took a while for us to get harvesters going but the further we went the better it got," he said.

"This last month we've had worthwhile rain that's created the green and reasonable vegetation, but I believe we have a dry band between.

"The [bursts of rain] were close enough together that they created a real germination."

He said the yields from the last harvest were above average, with the quality of wheat, barley and canola also "unexpectedly good".

"This year we're hoping to get everything up and growing nicely, that's why we want a little bit more rain now to get things up and going," he said.

"Everyone has good moisture and if we get another 10-15mm in this rain coming, we'll be set."