Dairy
In spring 2017, three monitoring sites on dairy farms at Jancourt (Western District), Longwarry (West Gippsland) and Yarram (South Gippsland) were commissioned. The monitoring site at Jancourt consists of one probe installed into a perennial pasture paddock. Two probes at Longwarry with one in a pasture paddock with a history of chicory, while the second is a perennial pasture. A perennial pasture and a prairie grass paddock round out the sites at Yarram. Other probes listed below are located on sheep or cattle properties, but they may also be relevant to dairy producers.
The probes installed are 80 centimetres long with eight internal sensors to provide soil moisture values and temperature every 10 centimetres.
All sites are currently useful in showing total soil moisture levels from estimated Plant Available Water and relative movement/use of moisture down the profile for various soil types and pasture species. In the quarterly dairy eNewsletter, Milking the Weather, updates of soil moisture conditions as well as relevant future insights for each of the three individual dryland dairy sites are reported.
