- Minister for Agriculture
The Victorian Government has announced improvements to the Soil Moisture Monitoring Program as it continues to support farm businesses impacted by drought and dry seasonal conditions.
The new set-up will mean easier and quicker access and the improved search function will allow farmers to distinguish between crop types being monitored, pasture and soil types and locations – all which influence soil moisture data.
Until now, the data had been only available via a monthly e-newsletter subscription or by using a verified login.
New tools featured on the platform will translate the data into real-time local information. These tools include a temperature gauge, current soil moisture profile and a one to three-month rainfall outlook for Victoria.
The improvements will also enable more farmers to see the daily ‘Speedo soil moisture graphs’, which are a real time soil moisture percentage measure. These graphs are an important tool for farmers experiencing increasingly variable climatic conditions, specifically rainfall to make timely decisions.
Farmers can subscribe to the Agriculture Victoria Soil Moisture Monitoring e-newsletter to get further information and analysis of data. The new Soil Moisture Monitoring program portal can be found at agriculture.vic.gov.au/soilmoisturemonitoring.
For more information on Drought and Dry Seasonal Conditions support and services visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/dryseasons or call 136 186.
As stated by Minister for Agriculture Jaclyn Symes
“For almost a decade the Soil Moisture Monitoring program has been providing soil water content data to farmers using probes located around the state.”
“This improvement will help take a lot of the guess-work out of estimating a crop potential yield and pasture growth by helping farmers better measure what’s going on underneath the surface.”
