Wheat and barley, the main cereal crops of Australia, are usually planted from May to July and harvested from October to January. The monitored period thus covers only the end of the last harvesting season with no crops in the field for most of the reporting period.

Agro-climatic indicators in Australia show overall average condition for January to April: RAIN 7%, TEMP +0.3°C, RADPAR 0%. As a result, the biomass accumulation potential shows a decrease of 13% compared with recent years. Positive departures of rain (+19%) were recorded in Western Australia, contributing to favorable soil moisture conditions for the planting of wheat and barley in the coming month. The maximum VCI is 0.45 all over the region, except for southeastern Queensland (0.8), where cotton has reached maturity. Although CALF decreased by 34 percentage points compared with the recent five-year average, this does not necessarily indicate a reduction of the planted area at this time of the season.

Regional analysis

This analysis adopts five agro-ecological regions for Australia, namely the Southeastern Wheat Zone, Southwestern Wheat Zone, Arid and Semi-arid Zone, Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone, and Subhumid Subtropical Zone.

Compared with the last 15 year average, the rainfall for these 5 sub-regions was as follows: -31%, -14%, +48%, -11% and -14% respectively. Low rainfall, especially for the Southeastern Wheat Zone, will possibly have some negative impact on the soil moisture, while the Arid and Semi-arid Zone has enjoyed an increase of rainfall over average. The temperature and RADPAR both keep relatively stable for these 5 sub-regions with 0.7℃, -0.8℃, -0.6℃, 0.1℃, 0.7℃ for the former and 0%, -5%, -3%, 0%, 3% for the latter, which are within the normal fluctuation range. As a result, the potential accumulated biomass shows values of -18%, -11%, +7%, -14% and -13%, compared with the last 5 year average.

In summary, the agroclimatic conditions in Australia have been average so far,  except for some low rainfall, which complementary irrigation can make up for. CropWatch will keep on monitoring the crop condition of the planting season in the next bulletin.

Figure 3.6. Australia crop condition, January-April 2018

(a) Phenology of major crops

(b) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI              (c) Maximum VCI

 (d) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA  (e) NDVI profiles

 (f) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Southeastern wheat zone (left) and Southwestern wheat zone (right))

 (g) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Arid and semi-arid zone (left) and Wet temperate and subtropical zone (right))

(h) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Subhumid subtropical zone)

Table 3.5. Australia January-April 2018 agroclimatic indicators by agro-ecological region, current season's values and departure from 15YA

Table 3.6. Australia  January-April 2018 agronomic indicators by agro-ecological region, current season's values and departure from 5YA