Two months into autumn and about half of the key growing zones lack soil moisture
Almost half of Victoria’s key agriculture regions are running in the red when it comes to soil moisture. Here are the areas running on empty.
Almost half of Victoria’s key agriculture regions are running in the red when it comes to soil moisture.
Agriculture Victoria’s soil moisture monitoring network map shows many areas – from Dartmoor in the west, to Ensay in the east, and Youanmite in the North East – are tracking at less than 25 per cent soil moisture saturation.
Coupled with the dryness, soil temperatures are falling.
This far into autumn, farmers want to see a soil moisture profile filling up, to get pastures and crops up and away before the cold of winter stunts growth.
Many farmers are handfeeding and containment feeding stock, with some managing the tricky task of supplementary feeding lambing ewes – a necessary practice in dry conditions that risks upsetting mothering.
Agriculture Victoria’s network reveals that of the 59 sites monitored through the year, 26 are now in the red – reporting less than 25 per cent of the soil profile is saturated with water.
There are 14 sites that are fully saturated, predominantly in the North West of the state, which has caught the recent heavy rainfall events which have slipped past southern areas.
A further 12 locations have less than 50 per cent saturation and seven have more than 75 per cent.
At Hamilton in the state’s Western District, soil moisture saturation is close to zero, meaning pastures have very little to draw on to survive or grow. This time last year, Hamilton had 75 per cent saturation.
Nearby at Bulart, farmer April Klobe said conditions were “very dry, there is hardly any green and I am feeding every day”.
Other areas in the red zone include key livestock regions such as Harrow recording less than 5 per cent saturation of the soil, and down south to Dartmoor in the far west, usually a very high rainfall region, with 25 per cent.
Other areas in the red include Terang, Stawell, Lawloit, and to the east, Bairnsdale and Ensay.
But even within districts, recorded rain varies and some areas snagged good falls, getting their pastures off to a good start.
Mortlake in the Western District, just an hour’s drive from Hamilton, is one of them.
There, stud cattle breeder and contractor Gordon Branson said conditions were “quite good really, we have had a bit of rain”.
“We have had 60mm in April so it is quite OK here, but I am driving north today and the further you go the drier it gets,” he said.
“We got a storm around the first of April and it all turned green in a week, but towards Hamilton and Port Fairy, it is dry, they haven’t had it (good rain).”
While the early rain was good, Mr Branson said the past week had “another change in the air and it feels like it is getting dry again”.
Elders Bendigo agronomist Josh McLeod said there was still subsoil moisture in his area but it was at a depth of below seven centimetres.
“That top five centimetres is really drying out quite quickly,” he said.
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