AG KI PROJECTS

Kangaroo Island Soil Probes and Weather Station Data

Soil probes and associated weather stations are becoming increasingly important in assisting farmers to make better informed farm management decisions.

Three soil probes had previously been established on Kangaroo Island, but given the extensive variation in weather across the island, the data had limited applicability to the district in which they are situated. Thanks to funding by South Australia and Australian Government’s National Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, an additional seven soil probes were installed across Kangaroo Island through 2021 and 2022 which has made the data readily available to local farmers. In recent years, thanks to funding from the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board's GrassRoots program, three additional soil probes have been installed including one at the Parndana school campus brining to total number of weather station soil probes to thirteen. This expanded soil probe network will enable farmers to make more informed decisions in an increasingly more variable climate, enabling them to maintain production and efficiently.

Over the last two years, AgByte have developed a new data hosting platform as the previous one was slow and has limited development opportunities. While still being developed, the new platform will provide forecasting capabilities for forward planning and the calculation of extension data for alerts on critical areas such as heat stress, fly strike, frost risks and foot-rot conditions. The data also informs on farm decision such as seeding, irrigation, harvest and importantly high fire danger risk days.

In 2024 thanks to funding from Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal's 'Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Program' thanks to funding from the Federal Governments Future Drought Fund the new weather station dashboard was launched at a Community Demonstration Day along with a suite of fact sheets and user guides.

This project has been delivered in partnership with Livestock SA, Agriculture Kangaroo Island (AgKI), Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA), Kangaroo Island Landscape Board and Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR).