Summer grains potential in Gippsland

Bairnsdale Climate
 

The red-gum plains between Traralgon and Bairnsdale in Gippsland are predominantly a livestock grazing area with a small percentage of cropping for both fodder and grain. I believe that there is potential to significantly expand this area. The main crops grown are winter cereals and canola with a small area of field peas and lupins. One of the challenges for gippsland is rain at harvest time - our wettest month is November, however our winter crops have finished using moisture by then. In 2007, wanting to turn a problem into an opportunity, several members of Southern Farming Systems Gippsland branch decided to plant a trial of several summer crops for grazing, grain and fodder purposes. With a wetter than average summer, very encouraging results were achieved. In this blog I will focus on the potential of summer grain crops for the Gippsland Plains. You can see from the graph above that Bairnsdale does recieve significant summer rain. Another feature is the mild climate, much cooler in the summer than regions on the other side of the great dividing range.