‘Optimistic’: Mixed moisture levels ahead of 2022 season

With early season sowing less than two weeks away, soil moisture levels across NSW and Vic are mixed.

AS growers gear up for the upcoming cropping season, soil moisture levels are mixed across Victoria and NSW.

Riverina-based farmer and agronomist Rohan Brill said he was “pretty optimistic” about this year’s canola crop, and growers were hoping to take advantage of a deep soil moisture profile to plant early season varieties in less than two weeks’ time.

“In a year like this in NSW, when we’ve got stored water down deep in the profile, early sowing gives more time for the roots to get access to that stored water,” he said.

“We’ve got a good profile of moisture, but probably we’ll need rain in April in most places to get canola up and going.”

Growers were hoping to plant early season canola around April 10, he said.

In central NSW, the south west slopes and some parts of Victoria, some growers have already taken advantage of recent rainfall to plant dual purpose wheat and canola.

“Sometimes you might be better off taking the early opportunity (of rainfall) and then grazing rather than miss the opportunity,” Mr Brill said.

Agriculture Victoria seasonal risk agronomist Dale Boyd said during summer rainfall had been more consistent in the central and eastern parts of the state, with patchy storms in the Mallee and Wimmera.

“Many areas still have carry-over moisture from last harvest, as they had rain in November that wasn’t fully utilised by grain crops,” he said.

He said with sowing starting next month everyone would like more rain to get the moisture shallow.

“However, deeper soil moisture gives confidence that crop rotations can be filled.”

He said deep moisture increases in the past four months have ranged from 10 per cent to 40 per cent across the state and there was still a range of low to low/moderate soil moisture conditions in the Mallee and patches of the Wimmera.

Central Victoria and North East Victoria have moderate soil moisture conditions and patches that are wetter.

“It was dry in December and February, but there was opportunity to bank soil moisture in November and January.”