How are you going Hugh?
How are you going Pete? How’s things?
Yeah. Not not bad at all. Yeah, good day.
Perfect day. Some rain would be good, but...
Pretty good start to autumn though.
Yeah, no, a very good.
So, thanks for talking to us today.
We're up here at Edith at the soil moisture probe,
and we've got Hugh Webb here, and Hugh, can you just tell us a little bit about
how you use the information that comes through from the soil moisture probe?
Well, yeah, I look at it pretty regularly.
I'll look at to see what the soil moisture is doing at,
you know, all various levels.
And look at the average.
I also look at the soil temperature at at critical times.
And also I look at the predicted forecast for the next seven days,
which I find pretty accurate compared to,
you know, some of the other weather forecasting that we’re seeing. Yep.
And how do you use the information that
that's provided from
the probe and from the posture modelling, posture growth modelling.
When you're going into the autumn, you're watching this soil temperature
go south and it gives you a fair indication, like as it's starting to go,
that you realise that your growth is just about finished for the winter.
And then at the other end, providing the moisture is right
that you're looking for
the soil temperatures to start to increase, that you know you're
when you're getting close to getting some spring growth,
and then you start putting the soil temperature
and the moisture together, especially at the end of, winter.
And if you haven't got the moisture there and the temperature’s starting to go up,
your soil temperature’s starting to go up, you start to get worried.
that, that the spring might not be going to start out, you'd expect it to.
And that provides you some real time information on,
you know, to start planning and making some decisions
on your stocking rates or, you know, what you might be doing.
100%.
And, just interesting,
like you look at the all the probes across the Central Tablelands
and you can see trends, you can see drying trend in part
of the Central Plains and a wetter trend in other parts of the tablelands.
So it gives you an indication whether it's like a widespread dry
or widespread wet and the same as looking across the south east.
You'll see trends across there like that fronts will come through,
and some parts of the southeast will get it and some parts won't.
And then they in a good season, you'll see the whole state
is benefiting from fronts coming through.
And yeah, so, Having the real time
data that's local to you, it's useful being local?
Like where did your data previously come from.
Well we like you used the Elders weather, and if you drill down into Elders
weather for Oberon is coming from Mount Boyce, which is totally irrelevant.
So this is probably the most relevant unbiased information
probably on the Oberon plateau that I know of.
There's,
there is a probe out of Paling Yards,
which is right on the edge of the Oberon Shire.
And the next one is that Matt Ryan’s in east,
but he's in Lithgow Shire on the granite country.
And then there's one at O’Connell
on the granite country in the O’Connell Valley. Yep.
So the pasture forecasting modelling, do you do use that much at all?
Oh I do I watch the black line with the predicted,
to where we potentially heading.
I don't believe it's always accurate.
Like what's happening in real life to what they are predicting,
that’s sometimes is a little bit different.
But again it's a guide.
And you take it on board.
So that's another tool that you can use to make an informed decision.
Oh 100%, 100%. And
you know, you take
or you start using your soil moisture, you start using your soil temperature.
And if you know your phosphorus levels, you know, you know your groundcover.
You know that whether you're just about to start to go for spring
or you're going to get a big response in with a heap of summer rainfall,
by weighing up all those factors, or all of a sudden
you start getting some rogue frost in the end of summer, early autumn
and the temperature drops, soil temperature drops dramatically.
And then you compare it to the year before,
which is good, because you can compare all that data and compare to the year before
and look at diary entries, etcetera, to see where you were 12 months ago.
You can make informed decisions as you go.
So the soil moisture is showing that it's you know, with sort of high 40s
with sort of 50% capacity throughout the whole profile.
Is that giving you any confidence coming into autumn?
Oh, 100%.
Look, we're green here and we're on the last day of summer today.
Like, you know, I mean, it's a pretty cool day, like,
I mean, we've got good groundcover.
The whole place is pretty well green that if we get rain in the next,
you know, couple of weeks, especially if we get a decent fall.
Well, you know, we'll be away for autumn.
We'll be looking at a pretty good autumn week.
Like we've got oats out of the ground that we sowed early February,
and that's pretty unusual.
and it was up within a week.
And it's got good moisture under it.
So like things are shaping up
pretty well here like on Winona at Edith.
And so the primary gives you that confidence
to put your crops in and to make those make those decisions.
100% and even the comment I’d make, this is a perennial pasture here.
And like this is going to be growing all the time.
Like this cocksfoot will grow all year round.
I mean, where we're sowing oats we've had a fallow
before Christmas,
or early summer to get any summer rainfall.
So we know I mean even though the probe’s not there, we know that
we should have more moisture in that fallowed country versus what's where our
perennial grasses are.
Where your pastures are using the moisture.
You're using the moisture all the time.
Right here, it's all real life.
Real time. Yep.
Point 2 of a mil yesterday,
46% moisture at top ten centimetres.
Yeah.
Year on year with 2 percent better off.
So you might as well say
we're exactly the same as where we were this time last year.
Yeah.
And you look at the,
you've got the temperature there that that shows you where we were at.
24.4 degrees and I'd be saying that's pretty good temperature
for sowing our early winter forage crops.
Well Hugh, thanks for having us up here today and talking about the probe.
And I think if people want to have a look at it, then put the farming forecaster
into your, in your search engine and check out your nearest probe.
Yeah. 100 percent.
I've got to show the gratitude to LLS.
This is innovative stuff and technology that everybody should get access to.
And as you say, like
everybody should be looking it up on the farming forecaster and
people, if they've got a sizeable enterprise
really should, even if they have to put it in themselves,
the technology is extremely valuable in a business.
Yep, thanks Hugh.
Thanks Pete.
early February, and that's pretty unusual.
and it was up within a week.
And it's got good moisture under it.
So like things are shaping up
pretty well here like on we are on Edith.
And so the primary gives you that confidence
to put your crops in and to make those make those decisions.
100% and even the comment I’d make, this is a perennial pasture here.
And like this is going to be growing all the time.
Like this coxfoot will grow all year round.
I mean, where we're sowing oats we've had a fallow
before Christmas,
or early summer to get any summer rainfall.
So we know I mean even though the probe’s not there, we know that
we should have more moisture in that fallowed country versus what's where our
perennial grasses are.
Where your pastures are using the moisture.
You're using the moisture all the time.
Right here, it's all real life.
Real time. Yep.
Point two of a mil yesterday,
46% moisture at top ten centimetres.
Yeah.
Year on year with 2 percent better off.
So you might as well say
we're exactly the same as where we were this time last year.
Yeah.
And you look at the,
you've got the temperature there that that shows you where we were at.
24.4 degrees and I'd be saying that's pretty good temperature
for sowing our early winter forage crops.
Well Hugh, thanks for having us up here today and talking about the probe.
And I think if people want to have a look at it, then put the farming forecaster
into your, in your search engine and check out your nearest probe.
Yeah. 100 percent.
I've got to show the gratitude to LLS.
This is innovative stuff and technology that everybody should get access to.
And as you say, like
everybody should be looking it up on the farming forecaster and
people, if they've got a sizeable enterprise
really should, even if they have to put it in themselves,
the technology is extremely valuable in a business.
Yep, thanks Hugh. Thanks Pete.
