FORECASTS of below average rainfall are making some Tasmanian farmers nervous as parts of the state are already experiencing dry conditions.

While widespread rains throughout winter have so far been recorded in many regions, for farmers in the southern midlands, Derwent Valley and Central highlands and some parts if the East Coast, conditions are worrying.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest long-range forecast says for August to October, below median rainfall is 60-80 per cent likely for large parts of southern and eastern Australia.

Above average maximum temperatures are also more than 80 per cent likely from August to October for almost all of Australia.

For the next three months the BOM says above average minimum temperatures are very likely, with a 60 to greater than 80 per cent chance across the country.

The BOM says the forecast is influenced by several factors, including likely El Niño development, potential positive Indian Ocean Dipole development, and record warm oceans globally.

Gretna farmer Wayne Walker said conditions in his area were already very dry after below average rainfall in autumn and winter.

“I’ve got a job to see the plough for dust today,” he said.

“The Derwent Valley is terrible. I think we’ve only had about 150mm for the year, which is not a lot. If we get a week of hot windy weather, we’ll be gone here.”

Data from the BOM shows July was the warmest on record for Tasmania.
Temperatures across the state were at 2.02C above average.

While nationally rainfall was close to average, rainfall for July was below average for the southern two thirds of Western Australia, most of South Australia, eastern New South Wales, Victoria and eastern Tasmania.

Australia’s national area-average mean temperature for July was 1.19C above the 1961-1990 average, the ninth-highest on record since 1910.

For Tasmania, the July statewide mean maximum temperature was 1.40 °C above the 1961-1990 average, the warmest on record.

Hollow Tree farmer Richard Hallett said it has been an extremely dry year in their area so far.

“I think we’ve had about 114mm for the first seven months for the year, so that’s really dry,” he said.

“It’s probably one of the driest January to July periods that we’ve ever had, so it’s not great.”

Mr Hallett said while their investment in irrigation across the farm will help with their cropping program, for dryland areas of the farm it is a different story.

“That doesn’t help the 90 per cent of the farm where we need to grow pasture and grass for animals,” he said.

“It has certainly been a very dry start to the year so far. We are in a very low rainfall zone down here though, so we don’t expect much rain every year.”

Planting of barley and wheat is now under way on the Hallett family’s Llanberis operation and Mr Hallett said so far conditions were ideal.

“Conditions are perfect for sowing at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve had about 18mm of rain over the last week, so there’s a little bit of moisture there to get things started. The last couple of springs have actually been too wet here which has been counterproductive.”

As well as low rainfall, Mr Hallett said temperatures so far this year have also been warmer than normal.

“July was ridiculously warm, I’d say a couple of degrees warmer than normal at least,” he said.

The BOM says clear skies and light winds resulted in high daytime temperatures in parts of northern and eastern Australia in July.

Northerly airflow brought unusually mild daytime temperatures to Tasmania between the July 1-3 and again on July 13 and some stations had their highest July temperature on record on these days.

Tasmania’s statewide mean minimum temperature was 2.63C above the 1961-1990 average, the warmest on record since observations begun in 1910.

Oatland farmer Brian Fish said conditions at his farm were holding in at the moment, but the lack of rain was a concern.

“It has certainly been drier than most normal winters, but it suits us to not be too wet up here where I live,” he said.

The BOM says rainfall was below average for the southern two thirds of Western Australia, most of South Australia, eastern New South Wales, Victoria and eastern Tasmania.

July rainfall was very much below average in the driest 10 per cent of historical observations for a number of areas across the country including parts of eastern Tasmania.

A TASMANIAN Polwarth stud has made it a hat trick after winning the supreme champion award at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show at Bendigo for the third time.

A ram from Wanye and Maxine Walker’s Riverview Stud won the award this year.

It comes after rams from the stud also took out the supreme titles in both 2019 and 2022.

This year’s winning three-year-old ram was bred at the Walker’s stud at Gretna.

Mr Walker said the winning sheep was sired by a ram from the stud and he was thrilled to have won the supreme title again.

“He’s beautiful in the wool and everything,” he said.

“When he won at Campbell Town everyone said he would take some beating at Bendigo.”

Mr Walker said the ram’s wool quality made him a standout.

“He’s a big barreled sheep and a heavy wool cutter,” he said.

“He’s got long stapled snow-white wool.”

The Walkers have about 220 sheep in their stud.

Polwarths numbers across the country are not as high as they once were, but Mr Walker said he had been a fan of the breed for a long time.

When he started working on sheep farms, Mr Walker said polwarths were the breed of choice and he saw how versatile they could be.

“I bought 25 off Dean Zantuck and started the stud and went from there and I’ve just stuck with them,” he said.

“I’ve got some good genetics, so I just pick out the best ewes and which rams to put them too and it’s starting to pay off now.”

Mr Walker said he had not brought a new ram into the stud for about six years.

“I’m using my own genetics at the moment, just picking out the better woolled ones and crossing them,” he said.

Mr Walker said polwarths are able to handle wetter conditions than merinos, which made them ideal for many regions.

“They seem a bit more resistant to footrot and they don’t get fleece rot as bad,” he said.

“I sell a few up to Waddamanna and areas like that in the snow country where they reckon the merinos don’t do as well.”

Mr Walker said the polwarths’ smaller frame size also made them easier to handle when it comes to shearing.

The Walker’s winning ram also took out the Reserve Champion award in the interbreed Long Wool Exhibit.

“It’s a good effort for a Polwarth,” Mr Walker said.

“They said they don’t think it has ever been done before. There are a lot of sheep in the sheds at Bendigo. It’s a big shed.”

The polwarth classes at Bendigo were overseen by judges from Uruguay.

Last week the judges paid a visit to the Walker’s property to have a look at their sheep firsthand.

ADOPTING the latest herd management technology has made moving electric fences a thing of the past for Yolla dairy farmer Duncan MacDonald.

A new electronic collar management system, which includes virtual fencing capabilities, has been a game changer for Mr MacDonald.

The Halter herd management system was developed in New Zealand and after watching its progress for a number of years, Mr MacDonald was one of the first Tasmanian farmers to adopt the technology.

After initially installing it on his 750-800 cow operation, in October last year, Mr MacDonald then also extended it to his second 550-cow farm in May.
“We were looking for ways to improve efficiency and better monitoring of cow health,” he said.

“I guess with the whole thing of herds getting bigger and staff getting less experienced, we wanted something that would help with those two key things.”

The system uses solar powered collars with batteries that track each cow and can collect a large range of data including rumination and resting times, grazing activity and movement including heat detection.

One of its key features is that the collars can use a system of noises and vibrations to train the cows to move as required.

This means Mr MacDonald can now set up virtual break fences in the paddocks to allocate pasture.

The system also prompts the cows to move to the dairy for milking or to a different paddock when required.

Mr MacDonald said it can also be used to exclude cows for certain areas when needed, such as riparian zones or even wet patches in the paddocks to prevent pasture damage.

“One of the biggest things is we can precisely allocate breaks for the cows,” he said.

“There’s not the work involved in putting up a portable fence, so we can change it or adjust the break if needed quickly and easily without even having to go out into the paddock.”

Mr MacDonald said being able to bring the cows to and from the dairy for milking has also been a big time and labour saving.

“That makes a huge difference especially when we’re already milking really early in the morning, because we try to have cups on at 4am in the morning in the peak here,” he said.

“So, we’ve taken a solid hour out of that in the morning for people and it’s the same in the afternoon. We’re running two herds here too so it’s that again … so there are huge labour savings with that.”

Mr MacDonald said they are also running more groups of cows now because the new system allows them to do that without any an extra work.

The system uses an app, which Mr MacDonald can access on his phone. Each cow is shown in the system in real time, so if there is an issue they can quickly be identified and located if needed.

Being able to monitor individual cow health more easily is a significant benefit.

“I sort of treat it like another set of eyes so you’re not going to rely on that 100 per cent and not look at the cows any more,” he said.

“But it’s another set of eyes, giving you an alert if you need to have a closer look at one of the cows.”

If a cow is down and not moving, the system sends an alert which makes identifying unwell cows easier and faster.

Mr MacDonald said the system helps to support their less experienced staff and allows him to monitor the cows without having to physically be on farm.

Halter partnerships manager Steve Crowhurst said Tasmanian farmers have been quick to adopt the technology and they were now rolling out one to two new systems each week across the state.

The system was first introduced in New Zealand seven years ago and Mr Crowhurst said it is now on farms across the country over there.

There were over 100,000 cows trained in the system in New Zealand last year.
“The farming systems in New Zealand are very similar to Tasmania, so that’s why we thought it would work well here too,” he said.

Mr Crowhurst said while the system has generally been designed to operate within existing fence lines on established farms, it could also be used on dairy conversions, which do not have pre-existing internal fences.

“Farmers don’t have to remove their existing physical fences, but what we find is there are some efficiency gains if they merge some paddocks,” he said.

“When you have the flexibility of virtual fencing farmers quickly realise they can use bigger paddocks.”

The collars tell the cows to turn left or right by making a noise on either side depending on where they need to move.

“Basically we train the cows to understand the cues of the collar,” Mr Crowhurst said.

“So instead of seeing fence they hear the fence, so sound lets them know when they’re approaching a boundary.

“The vibration is the cue to walk forward, so to go to the dairy or look for fresh grass or move forward. Each cow is guided forward individually relative to her position in the paddock.”

Because the collars deliver the cues consistently every time, the cows learn the system in a week or less.

“It’s amazing how quickly they learn the cues, especially the turning around,” Mr MacDonald said.

“They come out of the paddock to go to the dairy probably quicker on average, because they get the cues at the same time, but they are a lot more relaxed and they spread out more on the way there.”

One of the biggest benefits of the system is better pasture usage.

Since installing Halter, Mr MacDonald said he has been using back fencing to prevent re-grazing of pastures which is improving the re-growth rates.

He said the ability to more accurately allocate pasture means they have also improved utilisation across the farms.

“Even with GPS systems these days, if you send someone out to put up a fence, they can never get it 100 per cent right every time, so the cows might have too much pasture day then not enough the next,” he said.

“With this system we can give them exactly the right amount every day.”

Both farms run spring calving herds and all the cows are kept on farm over winter, which Mr MacDonald said made correct pasture allocation even more important.

Mr MacDonald said as they get into the busy calving season, the system means staff will not be tied up physically moving fences, so they can do other tasks instead which helps take pressure off.

THERE are many perks of a quiet winter in Tasmania, but for one farm, it’s oca harvest time … the most exciting time of the year.

These bright coloured, funky-shaped vegetables have been growing in popularity over the years but still not many people know what they are.

Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) – also known as New Zealand yam – is a small vegetable that comes in a variety of different colours.

Among other produce, Rise and Shine Farm at Copping in the state’s southeast has been growing the unique plant for a few years.

This season’s crop has added two new varieties of ocas which were all harvested by hand just last week.

Coral and Nick Warren started their small market gardening business in 2020 when they moved back to Tasmania from the mainland.

They are both huge fans of the vegetable being easy to grow, brightly coloured and uniquely tasting.

The vegetable tastes like a mix between radish when fresh and a starchy potato when roasted.

This year they have just harvested two new varieties that are white in colour called Sport and Apilla from Provenance Growers who are plant breeders located in Hobart.

Provenance Growers recently underwent different oca variety seed trials where the two new varieties sprouted.

The farm’s oca harvest has tripled from last year, harvesting 60kgs last week.
Much like a potato, ocas being a bulb or tuber, just need to be planted into the ground in summer until it starts to grow shoots.

“One of the things I really like about ocas as a grower is that it’s triggered by winter solstices,” Mrs Warren said.

“So the shortest day of the year is when it really starts plumping up its tubers and about a month after that when the frost has come through and the tops get knocked back, it tells you in a way that it’s ready.”

Ocas originated in Peru in a cold and bleak climate. Tasmania has a really good climate to grow these vegetables.

Mr Warren said ocas suit the cooler climates between 11C to 17C which makes for ideal growing conditions where they are located.

“They are very much a permaculture type of plant in that you plant it once and it’s always there. You can rely on it and don’t necessarily have to re-seed it.”

The Warrens sell their ocas at small markets like the Bream Creek Farmers Market and are priced generally between $18 to $24 dollars.

Mrs Warren describes ocas as a very independent plant and a crop that can be planted and let go and not require constant love and attention.

“It’s really nice in the middle of winter to have this fabulous, bright crop. It’s the only time during the year that it’s ready and it’s the only time people can actually have it.

“So people get really excited by it and it’s just a really nice seasonal vegetable.

“Other vegetables you get all year round but ocas are like one of those special things in the middle of winter when everything else is a bit bleak.”

They said that ocas always sell out as soon as they hit the stalls, being the first things to go.

“People start to know you’ve got it as well at the markets and ask about it this time of year. There are people who come to the market and see it and get really excited about it,” Mr Warren said.

Although visually different in colour, the three varieties taste very similar.

Because of the oxalic acid in ocas, they create an element in the vegetable that is tangy and lemony.

“I think what hooks a lot of people is that it has that lemony taste and it doesn’t taste just like a potato. You bite into it and it’s like it’s seasoned and prepared amazingly but in reality it’s just the natural acids in the plant,” Mrs Warren said.

Ocas are a long-haul crop that are planted in summer and harvested in winter.

Their ocas are planted in a standard 75cm garden bed with free draining soil and a biodegradable weed mat.

“This is the first season we’ve grown them in a permaculture bed, with paper at the bottom, chicken mulch, topped with soil,” Mrs Warren said.

“For us in this region, it’s generally really dry but this season had a little bit more rain than usual which helped a bit.”

Rise and Shine is a small-scale producer with a market garden that is due to expand this year.

On the farm, they also have alpacas for breeding, show and fleece as well as chickens and breeding pigs.

This year their focus is on the market garden and are looking to move towards changing their style of sales.

Mr Warren said being able to have something colorful, interesting and different at their market stall is what he really loves about growing ocas.

“They’re a very cool and interesting vegetable to grow and the people that know them, love them,” he said.

“To have that feedback from people at the market to tell us they were awesome and come back for more is really exciting.”

“It’s always cool to be able to educate the public about them and show people about a not so mainstream vegetable that is readily available to you.” Mrs Warren said.