STEADY rain throughout Monday finally led to movement on a stubborn soil moisture probe at Normanville that has been keeping farmers’ confidence in check.
Despite excellent rainfall in the eastern Mallee grain-belt throughout the year, the probe – which measures soil moisture below 30 centimetres – had barely budged since the same time last year.
But 18mm of rain on Sunday and Monday saw a significant spike, with soil moisture at a depth not seen since mid-2014.
“We’re really only now starting to accumulate moisture that will be useful in Spring,” said farmer and agronomist Bec Marshall, who farms at Normanville with husband, Ash.
“We really want to see something below 40 centimetres and we’re into that zone now.”
Mrs Marshall said the flatline on the probe prior to this week’s rain had served as a reminder that there was very little stored moisture in the ground after an extended dry spell.
“Everyone keeps saying how wet it is and it does feel wet but we’ve got no subsoil moisture, so looking at the crops above the ground doesn’t tell the full story,” she said.
We’ve been having all these little rains and they haven’t been going down very far at all to contribute to stored moisture until this week’s rain.”
The Marshalls have recorded 248 millimetres for the year, including 150 millimetres in the growing season. The 18-millimetre fall this week was the third largest single event, after 40 millimetres at the end of January and 19 millimetres on May 25.
Mrs Marshall said crops across the district were looking excellent, with an early break to the season ensuring they got off to a flying start.
“Everyone is pretty pleased with how the crops are looking and we have probably twice the growth we had at the same time last year,” she said.
“This time last year we probably knew our season was nearly over, so the mood in the district is a lot better now.”
Seventy per cent of the Marshall property is sown to an even split of wheat and barley, with the remainder sown to lentils and peas, as well as beans on irrigation.
Even after this week’s rain, Mrs Marshall said she remained cautious about the season.
“Cautiously optimistic is probably a good way to describe how we feel at the moment,” she said.
“Things probably couldn’t be looking any better but it comes back to knowing we don’t have a lot of subsoil moisture so we’re really relying on our spring.”
“It’s nice to see this area looking so good again, especially after last year and we’re just hoping everyone has a good season because there are lots of people who really need it.”
