Farmers are hoping for drought-breaking rain this weekend

Much needed rain has delivered up to 30mm in parts of Victoria and southern NSW over the past three days. Farmers say they are hoping for more.

Victorian and southern NSW farmers have emptied out the rain gauge to record falls of 16mm to 30mm overnight.

The much-needed falls have been labelled as a godsend and follow on from earlier falls on Wednesday and Thursday of up to 20mm.

However, some areas have missed out or are still waiting to score some rain between now and Monday next week.

Elders senior agronomist Chris “Desi” Toohey based at Albury in southern NSW said the rain in the past couple of days was “unbelievably welcome.”

“We have recorded from 16mm to 30mm around the place since Thursday,” he said.

“This will certainly fire the job up a little bit and any rain is a good rain,” he said.

While late, he said the rain and the possibility of more between now and Monday was later than ideal but was an overall positive sign.

“It will establish crops and get germinations going for those crops that haven’t germinated yet,” he said.

Up to 20mm more rain was anticipated between now and Monday for the region.

At Tarranyurk in the Wimmera, it is a completely different story.

Marshall Rodda said he had received no rain at all this week.

“I would like to think that we can expect some,” he said.

“We have really only had a couple of rain events of only 1mm or 2mm over the past few weeks; there has been nothing substantial at all.

He said they were about two-thirds of the way through sowing and some

“I think everyone is on a wing and a prayer but hopefully we get a substantial drop,” he said.

Birchip farmer John Ferrier said it hadn’t started raining yet but he was hopeful.

“I don’t think we are going to get any today,” he said on Friday.

“We might get a small shower early next week but they are only predicting 3mm to 4mm for us,” he said.

Mr Ferrier said sowing was all but complete and he expected to be finished on Friday.

Nutrien agronomist Josh Merrett of Kaniva said he was hoping 15mm would arrive in his area between now and Monday.

He said crops and pastures in the Wimmera certainly needed rain, and conditions were dry.

“We are not in dire straits yet, but we need it,” he said.

“I actually can’t remember our last decent rain. It was probably the one that saved us in spring last year.”

Mr Merrett said most farmers were about 75 per cent of the way through winter sowing and there would be more to go in after the rain.

“The ground (temperature) is still warm, so that should get the crops up pretty quickly,” he said.

“We will also see a germination of weeds after this, and it could be a chance for knockdowns in paddocks that haven’t been sown.”

Agronomist Josh Merrett of Nutrien says farmers in his area are looking forward to forecast rain. Picture: Supplied

Across the border in Southern NSW, Brocklesby farmer Justin Everitt said he was hoping to see up to 20mm, although only 4mm had arrived on Thursday morning.

“The 20mm would be absolutely great, if we can get it tomorrow, it will save our bacon,” he said.

“We haven’t seen a decent rain through here since probably February or March.”

Mr Everitt said he was 80 per cent of the way through sowing and none of the crops had emerged.

“After this rain, we should definitely see some good emergence, and then we will hope for continued follow-up rain from there on.”

This airseeder was dry sowing at Pura Pura in Victoria’s western district. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The Bureau of Meteorology’s four-day forecast shows a possible 15-25mm for Gippsland and a possible 5mm across most regions.

Meanwhile, Tasmania could receive up to 25mm and the northern coast of NSW had 100-150mm of widespread rain forecast.

But drought-stricken southwest Victoria would miss out on the band of rain over the next four days until next week, with a possible 15mm predicted then.

Northern NSW has moderate to major flood warnings, with localised totals of between 200-300mm expected within 24 hours, particularly at Sawtell, Woolgoolga, Taree, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo.

NSW Farmers Dorrigo branch chair and grazier David Gibson said the region had “too much rain” since ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

He said his farm fared better than others, but the ground had been saturated and unable to withstand most vehicles.

“It’s the land of extremes. We’ve had about 2500mm of rain for the year, and we do not want another drop to be honest,” Mr Gibson said.