FarmTalk #5 – Managing Water in Mallee Farming Systems

Fact Sheet #5 – June 2003

Dr. Victor Sadras – Research Scientist, Farming Systems CSIRO

The Issue
In the Mallee we need to identify management practices that maximise returns for every millimetre of available water, e.g. kg of grain per hectare per year or $ per hectare per year.

There are two sources of water for growing crops – Plant available water stored in the soil at sowing time and seasonal rainfall, which is highly variable and largely unpredictable. The growing season rainfall at Waikerie ranges from about 50 to nearly 350 mm, as shown in Fig. 1. This 7-fold difference between the driest and wettest seasons on record is typical across the Mallee.