Riverina farmers welcome soaking from above-average May rainfall

According to Bureau of Meteorology weather stations, many locations in the Riverina received between 40 and 60 millimetres of rain in the five days to Sunday, with Wagga recording 40.2, Junee recording 42 and Temora recording 61.4, while Hay Airport had just 19mm.

Wantabadgery wheat, canola and oats farmer Tony Clough of 'Windermere' had about 50 millimetres last week and said any rain at this time of the year was good.

"When you look at the season we've had so far it has been nearly ideal for a lot of people - not everyone - as there are still a lot of farmers out there that have ended up with some of the ground too wet to get on so that they can sow their crops," he said.

"There are a few farmers out there that don't want any more rain but you can't stop it from coming and you can't bring it on when you want it.

"There are still a lot of farmers who haven't finished cropping yet, sort of around Junee, but there are still a few that have finished and all the crops that were in early are up and looking healthy; all we have got to do is keep the weeds out of them."

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Mr Clough said some larger cropping farms in the region might be having trouble getting their machinery out into the paddocks due to soft and wet ground.

"For any machinery going into paddocks right now, you'd want to be a bit careful," he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology has not forecast a significant chance of rain returning until Wednesday and then only in some locations such as Wagga and Junee, which have a 30 to 40 per cent chance of rain.

Coolamon and Tarcutta goat and cattle grazier said Wayne Louis said he did not want to criticise the better-than-average rainfall he had seen this month after getting through drier times.

"Having gone through the centennial drought, I would never complain about heavy rains," he said.

"I broke the gumboots out [Sunday] as it was no good to keep getting the leather boots wet and drying them out."

The heavier rainfall, combined with other personal and business factors, did delay Mr Louis from sowing oats.

"I would have liked to have had the oats in last week ... but I would imagine most of the cropping people would be over the moon at the moisture level at the moment as that will keep the crops going for a while," he said.

At a total of 45.4 millimetres over the first 15 days of the month, Wagga Airport is on track to beat the city's average May rainfall of 50 millimetres but is a long way short of the 190-millimetre record set at the airport weather station in 1942.