Kangaroos and swallows and gum leaves, oh my!

Since the dawn of time, we have all relied on weather patterns to plan our next move and have in turn searched for the perfect "crystal ball" to understand Mother Nature.

In recent months, the Bureau of Meteorology has left the agricultural industry in a huff following a bungled prediction of a hot and dry summer which left SA regions with rain tallies of up to 200mm since November.

At Yankalilla, dairyfarmer Gary Dalitz has been mowing hay in the second week of January because of the wet weather, something he never thought he would do.

"We don't irrigate at all, so we just cut a lot of silage and feed the cows a couple of Jaylor (mixer) brews a day," he said.

"I cut two paddocks, only about seven hectares, but one was the third time we'd cut it.

"We cut it for silage, then we cut it for hay, then through December we grazed it off, then we got rain early in January and it just took off and it grew back thick enough to cut for a third time.

"It's not going to be a heck of a lot of hay but there's more value mowing and getting 15 bales off than strip grazing it for two days."

Although the unexpected wet may have caught some off guard, Mr Dalitz said he had a different way of predicting the weather.

Prior to the downpours, he noticed swallows rebuilding their nests around the dairy, which indicated the dry summer forecast was not as it seemed.

"Every other time we've seen the swallows building their nests, we've gone on to have four to six weeks of wet weather," he said.

"We use them as a bit of a long range forecast and put a bit more faith in them than other predictions.

"As soon as we saw them building nests we thought the forecast of a long, hot and dry summer couldn't be accurate."

Also a kangaroo shooter, Mr Dalitz said does with multiple joeys in their pouches were also a sign of wet weather.

"Around 2016, when we had our last sort of fairly wet winter, I shot a few does with twins so I was thinking we were in for a wet winter," he said.

"The same thing happened at the start of last year, and we did have some wet weather before it dried right off in the spring.

"I've only shot one night so far this year, and there have only been four does, but they had no joeys, so that might be an indicator of a drier start."

Back in 2009, Stock Journal reporter Alisha Fogden spoke with Ian 'Rocky' Smith, late of Rendelsham, who said to be a successful farmer, you needed to study animals, birds and the weather to be able to forecast what was coming up.

He said when there was a drought approaching, emus and kangaroos would move closer to water, or when the river was about to rise, pelicans would nest higher, or when a cow would skip across the paddock, it was about to rain.

Similarly, Stock Journal worked with guest weather expert Nellie in the 2000s, who would look at the moon phases, the patterns of ants and how glossy gum leaves were to determine the month's weather forecast.

With an almost unlimited amount of weather prediction options out there, should we put as much stock in the Bureau as we do, or will you look to other "tried and true" methods to make your decisions?

Let us know in the comments below.