As decisions regarding the upcoming harvest season loom large, farmers will be hoping for a wet spring in the coming weeks.
While the recent rainfall has been welcomed, to produce quality yields crops need to be exposed to more showers.
Nutrien Ag Tumby Bay agronomist Richard Norris said while any rainfall event is beneficial, the recent showers needed to be more substantial to make up for the low rainfall over summer.
“We’re relying on a more substantial event this spring to get us through to harvest,” he said.
If there is above average rainfall this year crops will be able to avoid frost damage, however if it is dry similar to last year the crops will be susceptible to frosts again.
“We could have multiple frosts across different stages of spring and it could be worse for some more than others, depending on the stage of development in the crop,” Mr Norris said.
He added the trend across lower Eyre Peninsula this year was expected to be less canola crops and more lentils.
“Lentils are a lot more drought tolerant than other crops and utilise the water efficiently,” Mr Norris said.
“That’s where we’ve seen a shift to lentils in the upper Eyre Peninsula where there’s lower rainfall and we’re starting to see a lot less canola because it requires a lot more water to produce yields.”
Early rain events this September were crucial – in particular for canola and legume crops – Mr Norris said.
“Some of the resilient crops like the ones with cereals can hold on for a while, but they will start to drop off leaves and tillers as it stays dry and that will decrease yield potential,” he said.
“Something like canola will produce less flowers, same as legumes, but if we get a wet early spring more flowers will be produced, which will mean higher yields.”
EPAG Research director and research agronomist Andrew Ware said heading into spring the amount of rainfall this season would impact the success of harvest more so than any other year.
“This is because we started this year without any significant moisture in the soil profile,” he said.
“We had the driest November through to May period we’ve pretty much ever had in the lower Eyre Peninsula.
“We also didn’t receive any significant rain until right at the end of May, so our crop planting was delayed beyond the optimal time and that means we’ve got crops in a period where it’s going to be warmer than ideal.”
Mr Ware said crops near Port Lincoln and the wider lower EP area would soon be drawing a lot more moisture than what is being replenished into the system and the moisture would run out by harvest.
“We’ll definitely be looking for more rain in spring, but at the moment crops have probably got enough to maintain a reasonable yield,” he said.
The challenge for farmers over the next few weeks will be how they determine how much money they put into their crops.
“If we continue to see a bit of rain farmers are probably going to have to look at fungicides,” he said.
“The benefits from those might not be as obvious as they have been in previous years, so it’s tricky to determine how much money to spend on a crop which might have a slightly lower yield potential than what we’ve seen in previous years.”
