Thanks to support from John Deere, Kondinin Group has engaged Dr David Stephens from Agrometeorology Australia to produce these maps for Kondinin Group members for the 2020 cropping season.

Yield prediction as at 20 October, 2020 according to Dr Stephens:

Western Australia and south-eastern Australia has seen a contrasting story over the last month.

Crop yield rankings continued to fall into the lowest 30 per cent of years in 100 in many Western Australian shires with a dry finish to the season taking its toll on expected yields.

Conversely, yield ranking improved in South Australia and Victoria in central and southern areas as a predicted wet finish finally started to kick in.

Unfortunately, this soft finish was too late for northern areas of both South Australia and Victoria where crops mature quicker. As an example, the northern Eyre Peninsula and the northern Mallee in Victoria saw a decline in yield rankings in the last month.

New South Wales crops continue to draw off decent soil moisture profiles and a bumper crop is expected.

This will be the final yield prediction map in our winter crop series for 2020. Farming Ahead will switch to monthly soil moisture maps along with Dr Stephens' insights, thanks to support from John Deere.