AS THE final strains of the Last Post ring out on Anzac Day, they will be replaced with the rumble of tractors in many parts of Victoria.
Anzac Day is a pivotal day for many grain growers' cropping programs.
Yarrawonga farmer and chair of Riverine Plains farmers group Adam Inchbold said Anzac Day was a traditional time for the break.
"A break at Anzac Day would be ideal, then we can sow our main season varieties," Mr Inchbold said.
"I've been a bit surprised with people saying how dry it is and the Anzac Day hasn't passed . . . if it has not rained before Anzac Day, then that's normal."
Mr Inchbold said he would still consider a break on May 5 as being average and a good season.
"If you look at the best years, 1915 and 1983, then we did not get rain until May 15," he said.
"Anzac Day is the average break, but I would say the average break can be up to 10 days later."
Andrew Russell, near Rutherglen, said Anzac Day was a "real pivotal point."
"It's a day, or time of the year that people use as a benchmark," he said.
Evan Ryan at Yarrawonga said Anzac Day and the local show were both milestones for the cropping season.
"If it hasn't rained by showtime in October then everyone knows it," Mr Ryan said.
"There are longer days, warmer temperatures and we're trying to fill grain.
"The potential is there if we get some rain."
Victorian Farmers Federation grains group president Russell Amery said rain would bring the sowing of canola, vetch and oats near his Wycheproof farm.
But he said many people would be sowing by today even if there hadn't been any rain.
"When I started here in the mid-1980s, if I had started on the tractor before mid-May, then Dad would shoot me," he said. "The longer season varieties help to spread the risk."
