The machinery kit helping get the 2024 crop in the ground

Rural Bank's latest cropping insights report has identified sowing activity in the early stages in areas with sufficient soil moisture.

The bank has tipped a slight increase in area planted to wheat and barley - both up two per cent and 3pc respectively.

This increase would be mainly coming from Queensland, NSW and Victoria where there were favourable seeding conditions after recent rain and good soil moisture building opportunities over summer.

The canola planting area was likely to contract 4pc at a national level, due to softening prices in the past year.

Grazing crops have already gone in the ground across some parts of NSW and Victoria, along with some canola and long season wheat.

After a dry run, parts of Western Australia, the south and south east, have received good rainfall since early March where seeding has now begun.

Planting is expected to get underway in earnest across other regions on the more traditional Anzac Day start, unless weather conditions change.

Rural Bank senior insights manager, Greg Kuchel, expected grain growers in most parts of Australia should start sowing canola in earnest in the next week or so.

However, it was a mixed bag for seeding conditions across the country.

"The recent rainfall on the east coast has been both detrimental and beneficial," he said.

"In Queensland where the summer sorghum crop is being harvested the additional moisture is affecting crop quality with reports of downgrading due to sprouted grain.

"But for farmers intending to plant winter crops leading into the end of April or early May, it has provided optimism for the upcoming season.

"Summer rainfall was above average for most cropping regions on the east coast, which left subsoil moisture at good levels."

Those who received over 20 millimetres were reporting they had now linked up the topsoil with the very valuable subsoil moisture below.

"They couldn't ask for a better autumn break," he said.

However, while there had been some rain in South Australia, Mr Kuchel said more was required to seeding get underway in earnest, especially on the Upper Eyre Peninsula.

"There is still plenty of time to start as Anzac Day is considered roughly the optimum seeding time in the majority of SA," he said.

"In Western Australia, some growers in the southern and south eastern districts are capitalising on good rainfall from early March and have started their seeding program.

"Those in the central and northern growing areas will wait until the more traditional Anzac Day start - unless weather conditions change."

Rural Bank has warned the area planted to canola could drop further if WA did not receive widespread rainfall by the end of April.

After declining in planting area in recent years, chickpeas were expected to be a more popular choice in rotations for growers in northern Australia this winter, due to strong pricing signals and good early season sowing conditions.

Air drill

To tackle this season's planting task on SA's Yorke Peninsula, Warburto Farm in Wallaroo recently took delivery of its new big 27.5 metre (90 foot) John Deere P690 precision air drill from the Emmetts dealership group.

The air drill was assembled over three weeks by Emmetts technicians from Kadina and Murray Bridge.

Warburto Farm's Wick Dayman expected to put the new air drill to work by the middle of April.

Mr Daymas crops 4400 hectares on the Yorkes, as well as running cattle.

"I'm planning to start with some barley, and as soon as there's a bit more moisture canola will go in," he said.

Mr Dayman said while "there's a bit of moisture underneath" at the moment, further rain was needed to really kick the season away.

"If we could get 10 to 15 millimetres soon, it would be pretty handy," he said.

"The fundamentals are there for another good season.

"We had above average rain before Christmas, but we've only had 11mm for this year so it'd been good to see a reasonable opening."

Mr Dayman has been using disc seeders for the past 14 years.

"I've tried a couple of different ones (disc seeders) but I was finding on our harder country I was having trouble getting the seeding depth to where I like it, so I decided to go back to a tyne machine," he said.

His previous seeding unit was 24m (80ft) so he's had a slight upgrade with the new 27m air drill.

Mr Dayman is a long-time John Deere and Emmetts client.

Tillage equipment

Many farmers across the country are still getting their paddocks prepared to put the 2024-2025 crop in the ground.

At SA's South East Field Days in March, specialist tillage equipment from Danish manufacturer Dalbo was on show for the first time in the state, and also at Victoria's Wimmera Machinery Field Days.

Dalbo gear has been manufactured in Denmark for 75 years.

"Dalbo had a small presence in Australia previously (with a few machines imported into WA) and we've been the national importer since October," said Techgrow national product support, Derek Upton.

"The quality of the build impressed us immensely."

Dalbo has partnered with Techgrow and Bute Discs to bring the Powerchain 800 to the Australian market.

The 8 metre disc chain unit is designed to complement the Bute Disc system and has a range of features including a linkage tow system that allows the chain to be lifted completely off of the ground when turning at the end of each run.

Hydraulic chain tensioning allows for easy, on-the-go adjustment and the disc chain can be folded up to 3m wide for road transport.

The Powerchain has been designed to deal with high levels of crop residue, after being tried and tested cultivating heavy cover crops across Europe, and can be mounted with an optional air seeder kit.