Australia Weather News

The skies above New South Wales farms have been filled with smoke in recent weeks as growers burn a huge load of dry stubble left over from last year's record crop yields.

The stubble retained over summer helps to conserve soil moisture by shading the soil from the hot summer sun.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries also said despite the move to no-till farming, many growers still do not have the system capability to handle very high stubble loads after high yielding years.

DPI agronomist Rohan Brill said farmers were using late burning to clear up the stubble in time for planting and in some cases farmers are actually sowing in fields where the smoke still hangs.

The decision to burn the stubble is also being fuelled by an increased planting of canola this autumn as growers search for better returns from winter crops.

Continuing low wheat prices are being blamed, at least in part, for an increase in stubble burning.

Relatively low cereal prices are making canola a more palatable prospect for planting in 2017.

"In a lot of that central west area they'll come in with canola when there's a good bank of moisture underneath and when the price is good," Mr Brill said.

"Currently the price of canola, say relative to cereal, looks quite optimistic.

"It's the one crop that does get impeded the most by stubble at establishment, hence the stubble burning."

Mr Brill said prospects for 2017 crops across NSW remain quite optimistic, despite the lack of significant rain in many parts of the state.

"Most pragmatic operators don't base a whole lot on the long term weather forecasts," he said.

"What we can work on is how much moisture is in the soil. If it's in the soil, then it's reliable. We can measure that.

"Generally, in most areas, we have reasonable subsoil moisture.

"There are no guarantees, but it means a reduced risk of having a failure."

The NSW Department of Primary Industries Don McCaffery agrees and says while there has been useful rain for some, particularly in the Riverina, not everyone has had an autumn break.

"Sometimes we get a state wide autumn break, but that is rare and other times we get storm rain over a period of time and that fills in the gaps.

"It is a good start and a lot of people are sitting on good sub soil moisture from last year.

"But we would like to see follow up rains."

ABC