As a general observation, it does seem that high rainfall areas are covered
with trees. With less rain the area seems to have grass and ends up going
more to desert as the rainfall decreases. Sort of a chicken or egg
question. Do the trees follow rain or does the rain follow the trees?
Bill Patterson
Virginia, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elaine Trevilyan" <elainetr@bigpond.com>
To: <vicdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 7:40 PM
Subject: RE: Dairying
The removal of large numbers of trees to make way for pasture was relevant
50yrs ago. On our farm at Myponga [SA] the rainfall dropped from 55" to 40"
after significant clearing. I think that the last 10+yrs is about climate
change. When I was a kid [long time ago..] our opening rains were in
march/april at the latest. Most years now it's may/june.
Last year we had opening rains June10th, & it kept raining till the end of
the year to give as above average rainfall.
Dairy SA is running a dairy innovations day on climate change & how it
affects the dairy industry. It will be at Murray Bridge racecourse on 9th
March starting at 10am.
We would love to welcome some interstaters.
Elaine Trevilyan
-----Original Message-----
From: leon [mailto:leon@grazinginfo.com]
Sent: Thursday, 26 January 2006 8:25 AM
To: vicdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Re: Dairying
I remember reading about 50 years ago that rainfall had dropped in parts of
Israel so they replanted ³dark green² trees and rainfall increased.
I donıt the significance of ³dark green².
An old time farmer near Taihape, NZ. roughly in the middle of the North
Island, told me that rainfall there had decreased because so much bush had
been cleared.
On 25/1/06 23:14, "David & Barbara Clayton" <barbclay@dcsi.net.au> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I have been amazed at some of the newspaper articles that have been
written
> about the lack of increased milk production lately.
> Reading said articles one would think that green grass was up to the tops
of
> the fences across the whole of the State. Just because one part of the
State
> is having a booming season it doesn't mean that the rest is in the same
boat.
> On our farm we a struggling to survive our nineth year in a row with below
> average rainfall.
> In 2005 we recorded 757mm which is the lowest in the 19 years we have been
> here. The 19 year average is 1056mm, the first 9 years average was 1145mm
and
> the last 10 years av. 975.
> There is absolutely no way that we could increase production with these
> weather conditions. Our farm is mostly red soil and for the last 4 years
we
> have had to buy in all feed from Christmas through to May. This last
spring is
> the first time in 4 generations that no silage or hay was made.
> If there is no good autumn break this year we will be joining all our
> neighbours and nearly all others within a 5km radius and throw the towell
in.
> I don't think that Dairy Australia realises that when then next down turn
in
> prices comes that we will probably see the biggest exit from the industry
> ever. There are a number of farmers in the 55+ age bracket who are only
still
> milking because we like the job. There again I might just sell out and
move to
> another, hopefully wetter area.
>
> What are other areas of Gippy like re rainfall?
>
> Regards,
> David Clayton
> Warragul
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
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