The weather has started to warm up, despite the frosty starts this month, which means soil temperatures around the region are beginning to lift out of their winter lull.
Increased soil temps mean better growing opportunities for plants, and information like soil temperature and moisture levels helps farmers with decisions from sowing crops and pasture to fodder conservation.
As a general trend, varying depending on locations, soil temperatures are starting to make a move back up the scale and the addition of winter rainfall has been a bonus for producers in East Gippsland.
A project called the Gippsland Soil Moisture Probe Producer Demonstration Site (PDS), which runs across Central and East Gippsland, has indepth, daily data on soil temperature, rainfall and weather, available for perusal on the AgVic website
and the Gippsland Agricultural Group website.
Each weather station can be clicked on, and all its relevant information will come up including those soil moisture and temperature levels at different depths.
The project, funded by MLA, East Gippsland Shire and Agriculture Victoria, aims to help farmers interpret the data provided by their local soil moisture probes to inform seasonal decisions.
For example, the data from the Buchan South station says the soil temperature is lifting.
On July 1 at the 20-centimetre mark it was 7.8 degrees, on August 1 it was 7.6 degrees, whereas yesterday, August 13, the temp was up at 9.34 degrees.
At the Gippsland Research Farm, on July 1 the soil temp at 20cm 8.1 degrees, on August 1 it was 7.7, and August 13 the soil temp was 9.24 degrees.
Elders Bairnsdale agronomist, Olivia Betts, said the main summer crop sown in the region was millet, which needed a soil temperature of 15 degrees and rising.
“A lot of people try to sow millet earlier which isn’t ideal, we won’t probably see those soil temps until September/October,” Ms Betts said.
“Grasses can be sown at about 10 degrees but the potential for frost burn is still there, whereas brassicas can be sown at about 8-12 degrees usually.”
The latest AgVic Soil Moisture Probe update reveals new 10cm soil temperature sensors were recently installed at the Gippsland Research Farm, Swan Reach, Ensay, Omeo and Buchan South sites, and the data will be provided in future Soil Moisture Probe updates, to assist farmers with their sowing decisions.
According to the latest update, released last week, soil moisture has progressively increased across all sites, however, the Tambo Valley up to Benambra hasn’t received as much rainfall as other areas and the soil moisture probes are not recording full profiles.
In July, rainfall varied between 43mm in Benambra and 115mm at Bete Belong, with most falling at the start of the month.
The highest fall from June 1 to July 11 was at the Tonghi Creek soil moisture probe, with a total of 232mm, whilst the lowest was at Benambra, which had 25mm over the same period.
Overall soil moisture has progressively increased from an average across all sites of 48 per cent on June 1, to 75 per cent on July 1 and 77 per cent on July 11.
This is higher than for the same time last year – 69 per cent on July 1, 2023, with most sites being wetter than last year.
For those wishing to access the data themselves, see the Gippsland Ag website, click the research tab and then weather
stations, or alternatively contact James Paulet at Agriculture Victoria Bairnsdale, who runs the Gippsland Soil Moisture Probe project.
