For the seven days to 9am Monday, 26 millimetres of rain fell in Murray Bridge and 27mm in Meningie, but only 1mm fell in Tailem Bend.

Rural Solutions SA farming consultant Craig Bell said the rain was “perfect” to open the season.

He said because the rain fell over a few days, the moisture had time to soak into the ground instead of running off.

“Farmers will (definitely) be happy with that, but it would have come in handy earlier,” Mr Bell said.

Mr Bell said some farmers would already be sowing paddocks which had a minimal chance of weeds germinating.

“From now on we will need follow up rains,” he said.

Coonalpyn recorded the highest rainfall for the region, with 34mm, and Coomandook had 27mm of rain.

Mr Bell said farmers would begin to spray as weeds showed through in the next week and rain would be welcome from then onwards.

He said the farmers who had begun dry-sowing after the light rain in early May would be happy with the timing of the weekend’s rain.

Low temperatures and strong winds accompanied the rain.

Murray Bridge recorded wind gusts of up to 59 kilometres an hour and its lowest top temperature for the month of 14 degrees Celsius, on Saturday.

A 72km/h wind gust was recorded at Lameroo on Friday and Karoonda recorded its lowest temperature for the month on Saturday, at 14C.

Isolated light showers will continue in the region until Thursday, fog patches will be experienced for the next few days and southerly winds will cause cool temperatures to continue.