AFTER weeks of monitoring and assessment, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has officially declared an El Niño event.
This signifies that Australia faces a more certain – and probably protracted – hot and dry summer.
In addition to what that means for farmers and water supplies, it also brings the threat of a much higher bushfire risk as parts of eastern Australia are already recording record September highs.
Australia’s last El Niño event occurred during the summer of 2015-16.
Dr Karl Braganza from the BoM said meteorologists deferred the decision for a week waiting to see if the pattern was going to “settle” and confirmed it this week.
“This summer will be hotter than average and certainly hotter than the past three years,” Mr Braganza said.
El Niño declarations have also been made by the US Climate Prediction Centre and the Japan Meteorological Agency.
During El Niño, there is a higher chance of reduced rainfall for eastern Australia, higher daytime temperatures for the southern two-thirds of Australia, increased risk of extreme heat, and increased bushfire danger in south-eastern Australia.
Dry seasonal conditions need to be planned for and carefully managed for the sustainability of wool-growing enterprises, the industry and the environment.
Some areas of Australia already have drier than usual conditions.
While it remains to be seen whether these conditions eventuate more broadly across Australia this season, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) has available for woolgrowers and sheep producers a range of planning and management resources, including:
Publications:
· Feeding and managing sheep in dry times
· Managing fodder prices for droughts
· Managing sheep in drought lots
· Which sheep do I keep?
· Drought feeding and management of sheep (Agriculture Victoria).
Decision support tools:
· Cost of production calculator
· LifetimeWool feed budget tables
· Feed On Offer library.
More information: These and other resources are available at www.wool.com/drought and www.wool.com/bushfires
