THE weekend’s rain brought a slight sigh of relief for some farmers across the state, but those in the Riverland, Mallee, Upper Eyre Peninsula and Far West Coast areas missed out on the much-needed soil moisture, with rain gauges only filling to about two millimetres.
For the Yorke Peninsula, Lower and Mid North, South East, Lower EP regions and Kangaroo Island, falls averaged between 10-35mm, giving a boost of confidence for croppers ahead of the new season, according to Bureau of Meteorology supervising meteorologist Paul Lainio.
He said the cold front from Friday onward produced a series of shower lines but “it certainly was not breaking rains”.
“We had up to 65mm of rain in parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges but it backed off in the Lower SE with 34mm at Mount Gambier,” Mr Lainio said.
“In the Lower and Mid North, through the spine of the highlands, about 5-20mm fell, Mallala had 8mm and parts of the YP had 5-18mm, with Curramulka reaching 18mm,” he said.
“Moving inland, Lameroo and most of the Riverland only had 2mm, while the Upper EP at Kimba only had 2mm as well.”
Growers are urged to not get overly eager and begin seeding programs, as the week ahead is not likely to produce vital follow-up rain, with less than 5mm expected in the coming eight days, Mr Lainio says.
“The Lower SE will benefit the most from the past four days but in the short-term, there is no significant rain ahead for most of the state,” he said.
There is also an expectation the northern, north west and north east pastoral regions will have drier than normal May and June conditions, with significant rain not expected until July.
But on the plus side, Mr Lainio said weather fronts with “squeezing northerly winds” were most likely past, with the worst of the wind behind growers for at least in the immediate future.
Grain Producers SA chair Wade Dabinett said most SA growers would not be too worried about the lack of rain, but if a season breaking rain did not arrive in the next few weeks, he expected rotation adjustments would be made.
“Canola crops will be the first to be adjusted if the soil moisture is not there,” he said. “If growers have maintained stubble cover, managed their soil profile and summer weeds, that will determine how well the soil moisture is retained at this stage.”
TRACTORS RESTARTED FOR SEEDING
After receiving more rain than expected, Hamley Bridge graingrower Alec Bowyer decided to “go hard” and begin seeding 900 hectares of canola this week.
Mr Bowyer sharefarms 3100 hectares with Ben Marshman at Hamley Bridge, Owen and Auburn, and dry sowed 200ha of canola on April 10 but the duo decided to pull the tractor up early and wait for the rain to arrive.
“Our driest paddock at Hamley Bridge actually got 12 millimetres last weekend so we got a surprise because it was a lot more than we expected,” Mr Bowyer said.
“We are sowing that paddock first because we only have a small window before it dries out.
“At Owen we got 17-20mm and Auburn was 15mm.
“We also have a lot of cover on paddocks and that is the big advantage of a disc seeder – we do not disturb the soil, keep our cover as is and retain some moisture.
“Soil moisture is about 70 centimetres down and that is in cereal paddocks from last year that would have taken quite a bit of moisture at depth. We are even more hopeful our lentil paddocks will have more moisture because it does not deep root and take it from depth.”
A strict summer weed management program has also set Mr Bowyer up for a good start to the season.
“We had a decent amount of rain after harvest and sprayed straight away to retain moisture – we are pretty hot on that,” he said.
About 200ha of beans will be sown next week, followed by 300ha of long-season wheat. About 1000ha of other wheat varieties and durum will be sown from May 3, with 500ha of lentils sown as the last crop.
“At this stage our seeding times will probably not change – we are not really afraid to sow the whole rotation dry if needed because we want to finish by May 25,” Mr Bowyer said.
“Whether it is dry or more rain arrives we want to get the crops in and finished.”
Cropping rotations examined
It will be a case of watch and wait in the coming weeks for most farmers after some regions received enough rain to get programs started but others were left contemplating whether to reduce the varieties in their rotation.
Elders Loxton agronomist Brian Lynch said the Riverland’s two millimetres of rain presented more challenges than opportunities, saying “rotation plans are now being juggled”.
“High-risk crops are being looked at, in particular canola and legumes – we are watching the weather to see if adjustments will need to be made,” he said. “Most will dry sow a percentage next week but will wait for rain to determine if the full program will be sown.”
Mid North independent agronomist Craig Davis, Salter Springs, said his region received 5mm to 25mm of rain. He said those with smaller programs could still wait for follow-up rain, but larger growers with disc seeders would most likely sow soon.
“At Balaklava soil moisture was down at about 40 centimetres but some of the heavier stubble cover has impacted on soil moisture in other parts of the region,” he said. “Some growers have already dropped canola out of the rotation because of a lack of sub-soil moisture.”
Kimba graingrower and Grain Producers SA board member Dion Woolford will sow regardless of rain forecasts and said, compared to 2017, it was a chalk and cheese start to the season.
“Last year we had our annual rainfall before we started seeding and that got us through the dry year – this year we were not so lucky,” Mr Woolford said.