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Strong rainfall this winter has led industry groups to predict a 16 percent increase in crop yields across Western Australia.
The difference is visible on satellite imagery that measures the Normalised Digitised Vegetation Index, or NDVI, which is an indicator of biomass.
According to the rural news service The Weekly Times, the Grain Industry Association of Western Australia has predicted a 10.7 million tonne wheat crop and a 17.3 million tonne winter crop for WA in its first crop forecast for the season, released in early July.
The Weekly Times said if the forecast is correct it would surpass the record 10.2 million tonnes wheat crop of grown in 2013 and would be a 16 percent increase on last year’s crop.
The ABC reported that early and constant rainfall in the state’s south has enabled most croppers to finish seeding in record time, putting a disappointing 2015 that was marred by low rainfall and fatal bushfires behind them.
You can see how crops are preforming using the GreenPrecision website, which provides a representation down to the paddock level of how crops are progressing compared to previous months and years. It clearly shows the strong crop growth and maturity in 2016 compared to the last three years.
How to read the images
In the GreenPrecision pictures below the orange and yellow areas represent low vegetation greenness and health compared to the blue and purple areas which represent high vegetation greenness and health.
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In Wongan Hills the annual rainfall to the end of July this year is more than 60% higher than the same time last year and is the highest total to July since 1999.
Mingenew has experienced the highest rainfall for the last 5 years to July with around 120mm more compared to last year.
Kukerin has experienced it’s highest rainfall to July since 2006 and almost double the rainfall to the same time last year.
CSBP Fertilisers in partnership with NGIS Australia created GreenPrecision, an innovative website utilising leading edge technology to deliver vegetation analysis across the entire world in an accessible and user friendly tool.
By using high performing cloud computing and a massive archive of satellite imagery, users are able to compare vegetation for any location across multiple years to track variability and view changes in vegetation.
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