It is now well into the latter parts of March and in a couple of weeks I will be on my way back north. Time has gone so fast and I have been a bit tardy keeping the blog going. The Australian drought must be declared over. The harvest just wrapped was plaqued with on-going rains and grain quality compromised. The yields were high and good prices have everyone smiling. This in addition to record breaking prices for beef and lams. There is water everywhere and the dried up lakes I saw two years ago are full to the brim. The landslide shown is just north of where I live near Dunkeld, a "landslip" as they are called down here was the result of 12 inches of rain in two days. The road is still closed 2 months after the event and with many other potentially unstable slopes it will be awhile before this is rectifyed. The house is safe though and no damage there. The Environmental Farm Plan Workshop I attended with Geoff McFarlane was different from those we have run up in Alberta. Participants bring their own laptops and write their environmental farm plans into the special software while taking the day-long workshop. The confidential data is uploaded into a state database and participants can see other plans (location and name not listed). This allows for effective sharing of ideas and for the state to see where the risk mitigation priorities lie.
I had a weekend up in the Riverina area (in the immediate Murray and Darling river watersheds) near Yarrawonga just along the border to New South Wales, took in some sheepshearing and farm touring. This is the first year in three that they had been allowed flood irrigation and their wheat, lupine and oat crops were very excellent, even under dry land farming (no irrigation). With ongoing rains there were even some unused water allocations, the first in many years. The water reservoirs are full as well and town no longer restricted on water usage.
Rains and high humidity have ruined grapes in many vinyards across the state as fungicides were in very short supply and several applications were required. The vinyards growing organic grapes have faced complete croploss. The picture of the steel ball is an interesting shot from the Heytesbury area of Victoria towards the souther coast, used in landclearing in the 1950-ies pulled by two D7 hooked to it via 60 meters of chaincats on either side. Much erosion and soil salinity ensued and local Landcare groups are actively involved in community projects, planting trees along seeps and riparian areas.
