Recent rainfall has surged Stawell’s monthly total seven millimetres past the town’s average figure for May, with a week still remaining in the month.
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Stawell has collected 44 millimetres for May, more than half of that which fell on Friday.
The Grampians has recorded 62 millimetres and Ararat 33.
And more rainfall could be on the way.
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.
“That compares to the high yielding crops - some that were the highest yielding recorded on farms – had done so by using all the available moisture that was in the profile.
“Soil monitoring will again play a vital role this year to understand soil water reserves as we go through the year and will assist with decision making for inputs during the growing season.”
Mr Boyd 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.
“It then started to infiltrate down through the profile in greater amounts in the spring, filling the soil profiles.
“In the Mallee, rain events in September and October boosted soil moisture, however some crops were already flowering so that rain infiltrated past the root-zone and was not able to be used by the crop.
“Most districts now have excellent conditions for sowing crops with healthy moisture reserves for this time of year.”
