Ken Crosner, a farmer from Taylors Lake, said he hasn't needed to put out bait yet.

"We haven't really got any serious problem with mice at this stage. Not much different to what we have virtually every year," Mr Crosner said.

"There's an odd mouse around but I haven't baited in the paddocks at this stage, because there's not enough there to put bait out."

"We have a few mice at this time of year, but I don't think they're any worse this year than normal."

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Paul Oxbrow, whose property sits just south of Rupanyup, said he was back to monitoring the mouse situation.

"We started off baiting at the start of cropping, but we weren't seeing any activity so we stopped baiting, and went back to monitoring," Mr Oxbrow said.

"I'm not seeing any huge numbers around my crops," he said.

Further north, farmer Malcolm Eastwood from Kaniva, has baited his crops in readiness for an upsurge in rodent populations.

"We've gone along and probably baited half of our cropping program for mice. They're there, but where I've baited now you'd hardly know I'd actually baited."

However, Mr Eastwood said the problem is "slowly getting worse".

"In the last three weeks the problem's got worse. There's more activity showing up than there was three weeks ago," Mr Eastwood said.

"I'm noticing some paddocks that the burrows are dug out a lot more extensively."

Mr Eastwood said he was concerned about the efficiency of the mice baits currently in use, and whether Victorian farmers will be given access to the more efficient baits currently being trialed.

Due to the increase in mice plagues across Australia, manufacturers of mice baits are looking at doubling the dosage in some cases.

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The dosage increases come in the wake of a study conducted by the CSIRO, funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), that supports increases in zinc phosphide (ZnP) mouse baits.

In response to the study, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Authority released an emergency use permit after an application from Grain Providers Australia, allowing increases in the concentration of ZnP from 25mg per kilogram of wheat grain to 50mg a kilogram.

The CSIRO's Steve Henry, who led the study, said the lab findings showed the bait prepared at this new ZnP level was more lethal, as previous bait mixing rates were only fatal half of the time.

"It is critical that every grain of bait represents a lethal dose," Mr Henry said.

"Our lab research has shown that mice rapidly develop aversion to the bait, meaning that if they do not consume a lethal dose from one grain of bait, they will not consume any more toxic grain."

While farmers wait for a potential mice plague, a "more pressing concern" is the lack of any significant rainfall in the region, according to Mr Crosner.

"I'm hoping for more rainfall. It's touch and go whether this will be enough moisture to shoot the crops and get them out of the ground. We'll take what we can get at this stage of the year," he said.

:"The biggest problem we've got at the moment is a lack of rain," Mr Crosner said.

Mr Oxbrow agrees that the lack of rain is more of an issue than mice at this stage.

"The season has been typical of the early 2000s, when we had some pretty dry plantings," Mr Oxbrow said.

Mr Eastwood said rain was a "big concern".

"If you look at the outlook over the next four weeks, it's not very rosy."

Mr Eastwood said ideally, he would be hoping for at least 150 milimetres over the rest of the growing season.

"If we can get six inches of rain, you might be surprised with what we can do with that during the season," Mr Eastwood said.

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