Australia Weather News

South Australian farmers say they are still feeling the strain of drought after inconsistent winter rains left little room for recovery before the coming summer.

"We're on a knife edge," SA Dairyfarmers' Association president Robert Brokenshire said.

"We are all concerned about what's going to happen late spring/summer. 

"If the spring shuts off early and we have a hot, tough, long summer … we'll be in bother bigger than you could believe.

"So again, we're nervous that's it."

The conditions had brewing in the state for more than a year, according to the Bureau of Meteorology's Daniel Sherwin-Simpson.

"Since the start of last year, we've seen very much long-term rainfall deficiencies, some of them being the highest on record across the agricultural areas of South Australia," he said.

"Those continued well into this year."

In the Adelaide Hills, Callington farmer Jodie Burr said she had spent tens of thousands of dollars on water and fodder for her horses and alpacas.

"This has been the worst year that I've seen," she said.

"I've been living in the country ever since I was about 10 years old, and I've never seen it this bad."

On the Yorke Peninsula, Maitland farmer Ben Wundersitz said he had experienced his "driest six months on record".

"We basically went for nine months without rain and I think it has an impact on everyone," he said.

"The local town ran out of water. The golf course was dead.

"You did have that concern that it was never going to rain again. All our rainwater storage was empty."

Winter rain brings hope for some

Winter rains offered relief for some parts of the state, but not everyone benefited.

Mr Sherwin-Simpson said while some parts of the Eyre Peninsula received record rainfall in July, parts of the Murraylands and Riverland regions "missed out".

He said while large parts of the state — outside of the Murraylands and Riverland — received near to slightly above-average rainfall through winter, it was not enough to make up for the "rainfall deficiencies".

"It was a step in the right direction, but we've seen things still broad-spectrum remain fairly dry across the state," he said.

In the Yorke Peninsula, Mr Wundersitz said he received just enough rain to start recovery.

"Once it sort of rained, we could see hope," he said.

"For us, I suppose the drought has broken. Obviously for many areas in the state that's ongoing."

Mr Wundersitz said it would still be a challenging road to recovery.

"We're in for a couple of tough years," he said.

"I think to bounce back to where we were is quite a few years away."

Mr Brokenshire also believes a full recovery will take time.

"This is a significant drought; I've never seen anything like it before," he said.

"I'm hoping I'm wrong and that it breaks, but at the moment the signals are not strong for a break in the drought.

"Depending on the severity of the drought in each region, it could take three to four years.

"But certainly there wouldn't be one farmer in South Australia that will meet full recovery from this drought in less than two years."

Entering a 'green drought'

While fields of green have been appearing across the state, Mr Brokenshire said the prolonged periods of dry conditions meant many of South Australia's farms had entered a "green drought".

"[People] driving through Mount Compass over the weekend would think, 'What am I talking about? Look how green and lush it is'," he said.

"Well, that's called a green drought because there's no bulk in that green, there's no fibre in that green, and that is unusual but that's part of the problem we have when we have a drought.

"To the eye it looks great but when you're farming you know it's not anywhere near it where it would be."

Back in the Adelaide Hills, even with some rain, Ms Burr said she has struggled to grow grass and her fields have been overcome with weeds.

"There is a lot of green around but if you have a look, it is capeweed — all that yellow flower is capeweed," she said.

Ms Burr said she had no choice but to keep the weeds if she wanted any hope of maintaining moisture in the ground.

Farmers forced to innovate

The challenge of drought has also presented opportunities for innovation, as farmers find new ways to keep producing under the strain of the conditions.

"I think the positive from these dry seasons really has been our ability to grow grain on so little rainfall," Mr Wundersitz said.

"Even as little as 10 years ago we would have basically produced just about nothing, but we just keep edging forward and our productional farming systems just become more and more sustainable."