A drier-than-average April has dragged Ballarat’s 2017 rainfall back from a healthy start but agronomists are still smiling at the way the season is shaping up.
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With May all but over, only 15 millimetres has fallen to date, less than a quarter of the long-term May average.
The year to date total for Ballarat is 243.2mm just ahead of the average of 240.9mm, helped along by a major dumping in April of 101mm.
But this is a massive increase on 2016 which at the same time languished at only 158mm but the end of Autumn.
But there could be some more rainfall on the way over the weekend with 10-15mm predicted by the Bureau from late Saturday into Monday .
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the region could expect more shower activity, with two cold fronts set to hit.
“The cold fronts will be arriving on two days,” he said.
“The stronger front will arrive on Sunday and early next week, which will bring higher totals and reasonable rainfall.”
Up to 100 millimetres of rain across parts of the state during April have continued to add to the soil moisture already there from spring last year, which produced some of the best soil moisture banks in five years.
Latest soil moisture monitoring done by Agriculture Victoria shows soil moisture values, as a collective, were higher than usual for this time of year, compared to the past five years of monitoring.
Agriculture Victoria agronomist Dale Boyd said the rain had given Wimmera croppers one of the best seasonal starts for years.
“Generally good residual moisture remains if the crop was cut for hay or the yield expectations were not met for the rain received in 2016,” he said.
Mr Boyd also said recent rain would especially help out those areas where record crops were grown in 2016 and soil moisture was depleted, but was now being built up again.
“Some of those monitoring points have gone from 25 per cent full to 50 - 75 per cent which is different to last season,” he said.
“In 2016, the season started very dry and it took a series of rain events through autumn and winter to wet up the top soil horizon.
“In the Mallee, rain events in September and October boosted soil moisture.
“Most districts now have excellent conditions for sowing crops.”
