Weather

Michelle Daw. Farmers on Yorke Peninsula are rejoicing after receiving some of the best rainfall for a year and a half with lighter falls forecast for today, Tuesday, July 29, and on Wednesday and Thursday. In the seven days to 9am Monday, falls ranged from 34 millimetres at Port Broughton, to 47mm at Snowtown, 64mm ...

Frank Batini. In summer 2011, following a very dry winter there was limited but noticeable tree crown scorch and some deaths of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) on sites with shallow soil. This event was repeated in summer 2024. On both of these occasions the forest growing on deeper soils was healthy. Academic and media comment immediately linked these deaths to human induced climate change ... ARR.News asked some further questions of Frank.

Rachel Hagan. Sandbags intended to give Foul Bay's Mud Alley another decade of protection were destroyed in recent storms, and now residents are taking matters into their own hands with plans for a permanent rock wall ... However, since the destructive May 26 storm, the wall of sandbags has been battered, and now there is little left of the seawall to shield residents.

Western Australian grain growers are set to benefit from a series of targeted projects focused on time of sowing in response to increasing seasonal variability. Delivered through the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) National Grower Network (NGN), the local projects are designed to support growers in making more informed sowing decisions...

After a tense wait, rain has finally fallen but farmers are hoping this is just the beginning of a solid wet season. Joyces Creek farmer Adam Sewell, who also featured on the [Tarrangower Times] cover a few months ago, welcomed water in his dam but said more was needed. Mr Sewell confessed to a few tears of relief when the rain persisted over the King’s Birthday Weekend, after weeks of false starts.

Climate change has such a large negative impact on Ukrainian agriculture that it affects the country's macroeconomic indicators ... Farmers from all regions of Ukraine have sown 5.5 million hectares of spring grain and leguminous crops ... However, this spring cannot be called ordinary.

In a year when the eastern states have either been drowning under floods or gasping through drought, and here in the west half the state has been left staring at a dry horizon, it seemed timely to stop watching the skies and start digging into the past ... What I aim to do is cut through the rising noise between the climate catastrophists shouting Armageddon and the hardened sceptics waving it all away, versus the climate fatalists like me—convinced that, whatever humans do, nature already has the final say—and put some facts on the table.

Western Sydney University researchers have discovered that drought affected wheat plants are able to call on eco-friendly soil bacteria to survive, helping keep crops healthy, boost yields, and provide pathways to develop extreme weather resistant crops.

The practice of dry sowing has become increasingly common with frequent years of below average rainfall in the sowing season. Dry sowing, where crops are sown into a dry seed bed before season breaking rainfall, has helped farmers decrease production risk and manage workload.

Around the state, Mr Schinckel said the amount of money spent by producers nowadays would be something in the order of $10-$15 million per week per 1000 producers. “So, $50m that the SA government is offering is not going to go far—it’s a drop in the ocean.” ... He believed that the state and federal governments did not know or understand livestock production.

It has been a long summer, resulting in dry dams and yellow paddocks that are visible to everyone. And in an unusual development, agriculture has featured recently in world headlines thanks to discussions of world trade and tariffs.

Christine Webster. David Arnold, director of the long-established family fruit business that has been operating since 1915, said due to the long spell of hot weather, the harvest came early in the second week of February, and was over by the end of the month.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the Department of Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) are working with local councils to respond to the fish kills in Richmond and Clarence waterways after ex-cyclone Alfred.

BlazeAid is a volunteer-based organisation that works with families and individuals in rural Australia after natural disasters such as fires, cyclones, droughts and floods. Working alongside the rural families, our volunteers help to rebuild fences and other structures that have been damaged or destroyed.

An experimental crop of industrial hemp proved too strong for Cyclone Alfred when it pounded paddocks at Gatton last week. Only one week ahead of harvest, the small plot of low-THC hemp withstood winds gusting up to 125 km/h and the floods accompanying the once-in-50-year weather event.

At the time of the Clarence Valley election last year, I wrote a column urgently imploring all pertinent authorities to provide ratepayers and tourists with written details on how to combat states of emergency ... only a few months after my written appeal, yet I and other local residents and visitors feel we have once again been left somewhat high and dry.

Tweed Shire Council is actively tackling the widespread damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Alfred with vital support from intrastate crews. The storm has caused significant damage, with fallen trees and debris blocking roads, Council land and private properties. 

Clockwise from top left: North Branch Road, near Goomburra Hall; New England Highway bridge; Goomburra residents were lucky that this tree missed their car...