Dry conditions, but soil moisture levels show promise

Wimmera farmers face dry conditions as they head into winter sowing but many are hoping to make the most of stored soil moisture.

Wimmera farmers face dry conditions as they head into winter sowing but many are hoping to make the most of stored soil moisture.

Tim McClelland runs a livestock and cropping operation at Jil Jil and was sowing pastures and hay crops last week.

He was hoping for some rain to help the fodder crops germinate before moving onto winter sowing but said if it didn’t arrive the crops would be sown dry.

He runs 6500ha, and of that, there is a mix of 5000ha of crops and 1500ha of pastures to support 3500 breeding ewes.

“It has been really dry, but we had rain at the end of last year,” he said.

Farmers look to stored soil moisture and also hope for more rain before winter sowing. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Despite the dry summer and early start to autumn he was encouraged that there was still soil moisture available.

Soil moisture probes are showing that there is moisture at a level of 50mm to 80mm.

Despite the challenges, Tim said dry sowing was easy. He said it was just a matter of hoping for forecast rain to arrive in time so the crop isn’t too late.

This year, he plans to grow barley, wheat, lentils, canola, vetch hay and barley hay in the winter sowing program.

“I’m comfortable with dry sowing and the main varieties will be fine to sow dry,” he said.

In his area, Tim said sowing winter grain crops now was still considered early.

There was some dual purpose, or stock feed crops being sown, including vetch and hay crops, but other than that, it was likely farmers would wait for a couple of weeks, and there was still plenty of time before the traditional Anzac Day optimum sowing date.