Compared to the last five-year average, the crop condition in Australia shows an overall average level during this monitoring period, which was the main growing season for winter wheat and barley. The spatial NDVI patternsshows that in south-eastern New South Wales, southern south Australia and partof south-western western Australia (32.7% of the arable land), winter wheat andbarley conditions were above average from the middle of July to October, while in northern Victoria and part of south-western western Australia (25.9% of the arable land), conditions were well below average throughout the reporting period. The crop condition remained close to average in the southeast of south Australia, south-western Victoria, east of the border area between New SouthWales and Victoria and part of south-western western Australia (41.4% of the arable land), 

The analysis result is consistent with the situation of the crop condition development graph based on the NDVI, which show that winter wheat andbarley, on the whole, grew well in July, attaining the five-year maximum at theend of July and staying close to average in August and September, but deteriorated below average in the harvest season of October. This is possibly dueto the negative impact of El Niño that resulted in a 45% decrease ofprecipitation in the country. Although CALF has increased by 8%, compared tothe five-year average, CropWatch estimates that the production of winter wheatand barley in Australia increased by1% only. (Alsosee table B.2 in Chapter 5.2.)

Figure3.6. Australia crop condition, July-October 2015