Albury-Wodonga's May rainfall total more than doubled in the last six days of the month to 44.6mm, which contributed to a seasonal tally of 171.4mm after 68.8mm fell in March and 58mm in April.

In 2022, the Border received 180.7mm of rain in autumn, while the long-term average is 151.9mm.

Further south in Wangaratta, 206.2mm fell, with close to half of that in March (93.8mm).

Falls of 66mm for April and 46.8mm in May saw the 200mm mark reached, but it fell short of 221.6mm for the season in 2020, which was the wettest since 1989.

It was a stark contrast to Yarrawonga, which only had 108.8mm for autumn.

April was the wettest month for the town with 57mm, while less than 30mm fell in both March and May.

It was Yarrawonga's lowest autumn rainfall figure since 2019, where just 73.6mm was recorded.

A drier winter is predicted after three straight La Nina years, which produced above average rainfall.

Albury-based agronomist Bob Ronald said a much steadier approach to growing crops would be taken this year as reduced rain in winter meant they required less protection.

"We may get the showers in June and July, but once we get to August, if it doesn't rain all of August, there will be big changes," he said.

"That then affects the requirement of fungicides. It mean you don't need to use as many fungicides, but it also means you don't need to do nitrogen fertilisers later in the season.

"In wet years like we've had, you really do have to protect them with fungicides, dry years, not so much, but there's a lot of crop around, so we still need to watch for the fungicides.

"You do get drift from fungal diseases because there's been such big fungal disease over the last three years."

Mr Ronald said canola and wheat growth was behind where it had been in previous years, but slug and mice damage to crops was apparent.

"When mice come in, they can be everywhere, but going back prior to 2020, you'd really only see slugs in wet areas," he said.

"Now they're everywhere across the region, even out around Rand and Oaklands. They're basically under wraps now, but on the canola, slugs and mice did quite a bit of damage.

"During sowing, they were certainly making life hard for people because you'd have to go and really do big checks, and then go back and resow any patches.

"As far as crop going in and pastures going in, they've all been able to go into good moisture and they've now had enough rain to bed them in."

A non-toxic treatment trialled by The University of Sydney at a farm at Pleasant Hills could help prevent a repeat of the 2021 mouse plague that set the industry back $1 billion.

Researchers said a diluted wheat germ oil sprayed on seeds acted as an "odour camouflage" and stopped mice destroying new crops.

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