This week: 23rd. November

Weather Report Week Ending 23/11/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 38.4C (101F) on Mon. 5 readings above our monthly average of 24.6C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 8.4C (47F) on Thur. 5 readings above our monthly average of 10.7C.

Rainfall for the Week 8.2mm (24 points) 1 day of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another quite warm week again this week. We had one wet day (Wed.) with just over 8mm of rain measured. The vines dried off very quickly after the rain, so I am not expecting any problems with mildew as a result. This rain has only been enough to freshen the vines up a bit. The good news is we wont have to irrigate for a while.

This week in the vineyard:

We have had some petioles analyzed in the last few weeks, this week we got the results back. We have no major issues with nutrition showing up.

Because of the rain this last week, I have now started putting our next fungicide spray on the vines. I am hoping that we will only need to put out one more spray this season, after this one. I am sorry I have not got a photo this week, but I have been very busy spraying any chance I can get.

This week: 16h. November

Weather Report Week Ending 16/11/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 34.8C (95F) on Fri. All 7 readings above our monthly average of 24.6C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 11.0C (52F) on Sat. All 7 readings above our monthly average of 10.7C.

Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A very warm week this week. All readings, both max. and min. have been above our monthly average. We have not recorded any rainfall at all this week.

This week in the vineyard:

We have now just about finished putting out the nitrogen fertigation, that we started last week. The vines have noticeably grown this last week, the warm weather with the rain we have had in the last 2 weeks, have really stimulated them. Flowering is finished in most varieties, fruit set so far looks to be quite reasonable. This week our Murray river water allocation has been lifted from 16% to 22%. This increase will still not be enough for us. We will need to top up our needs with poor quality bore water, however we will not need to use as much now, this is very good news for our soil. The more bore water we have to use the more chance we have of causing damage to our soil and ultimately our vines. This weeks photo is a view through some of our Chardonnay, showing how well developed our canopy's are now.

This week: 9th. November

Weather Report Week Ending 9/11/07
Maximum Temperature for the week 27.0C (80F) on Fri. 2 readings above our monthly average of 24.6C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 4.6C (40F) on Sun. 3 readings above our monthly average of 10.7C.
Rainfall for the Week 13.4mm (38 points) 2 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

One wet day this week (Sat.). Since Sunday we have had a large high pressure system parked in the great Australian bight. This has caused fine and dry conditions for us most of the week.

This week in the vineyard:

We are still breaking out water shoots (summer pruning). I have been cleaning up some of the weeds that were missed last time we went through the vineyard. I am also mowing again with the same pass to stop as much moisture being lost as possible, while leaving a mulch covering. We have also started putting out a Nitrogen fertigation on some of our white varieties, as we are a little concerned about the amount of canopy that some of the vines have. We would like to try and stimulate some more growth to protect our fruit from sunburn once we start getting into some hotter weather. This week's photo is of a bunch of Sauvinion Blanc. in full flower. Flowering will be over here in the Barossa by next week's posting. This week we will be looking for fine and calm weather to maximise the conversion from flowers in fruit.

This week: 2nd. November

Weather Report Week Ending 2/11/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 28.7C (83F) on Sat. 3 readings above our monthly average of 24.6C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 7.2C (45F) on Tue. 5 readings above our monthly average of 10.7C.

Rainfall for the Week 12.4mm (35 points) 4 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A slightly damp week. We have had several days of reasonable rainfall - not enough to influence our subsoil, but enough to replenish our evaporation losses. There has been a large low pressure system building in the great Australian Bite for most of this week, this has meant cooler and windy conditions for us.

This week in the vineyard:

We are still Summer pruning.

I have spent most of this week putting out our second fungicide spray for the season. I have all of our vineyard now protected against Downy and Powdery mildews. I am expecting some more rain for us this coming week.

We have seen the first signs of flowering in our vineyard. The Chardonnay is well under way, however other varieties are still to start. By next week I would expect most of our varieties will be flowering or finished. The photo this week shows some of our Chardonnay already near the end of flowering.

This week: 26th. October

Weather Report Week Ending 26/10/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 36.0C (97F) on Sun. 5 readings above our monthly average of 20.5C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 6.1C (43F) on Fri. 5 readings above our monthly average of 8.0C.

Rainfall for the Week 6.6mm (19 points) 2 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Some rain for us this week, but not really enough to be useful. Two very hot days, with hot Northerly winds for us this week, these will have caused the vines to start using up our available moisture. We will need to start monitoring our soil moisture's very closely from now on, to work out when to start watering our vines.

This week in the vineyard:

We are continuing to do our Summer pruning. As I reported last week we have been drilling for water, to replace an old bore that we used to use for irrigation. We have been successful in finding water - however the quality is (as we expected) fairly marginal for growing grape vines. We will go ahead and equip this bore with a pump and filtration equipment, but it will only be used as an emergency water supply, if we can not get enough out of the Barossa Infrastructure Limited scheme that has been supplying water for us from the Murray River. If we have to use this bore water for more than a couple of years, I would expect to see some problems with Sodic soils starting to re-emerge (our soils have improved considerably in the 5 or 6 years since we have had access to the BIL water). The photo shows our new bore being blown out at about 8000 gal./hour.

We have also started putting on our 2nd fungicide spray for the season as some of our Chardonnay are showing the first signs of flowering.

Nuffield Scolarship for Barossa Grapegrower

I have been awarded a Nuffield scholarship, one of the most prestigious farming honours that can be awarded to young farmers worldwide. The Scholarship is worth $A25,000 and it will involve me spend 4 months next year travelling the world studying something agriculture related, my chosen subject will be ‘regional branding and marketing to improve returns for producers’. I will be spending the first 6 weeks of my time away on what is called a global focus tour, this is a very intensive tour of all different forms of agriculture and agriculture related industries. On this leg of my tour I will be visiting The Philippines, China, Canada, USA, Ireland and France. The rest of my travel is still to be organized, however I would like to spend the majority of my time in Europe and North America with possibly some time in New Zealand and South Africa. So towards the middle of next year this blog will change a little from being about our vineyard to something of a blog on world agriculture, for a while at least. I am looking forward to the opportunity that this will give me. I will be having a very busy year, but I suspect I will be coming back something of a changed person. My scholarship is supported by Nufarm, and I thank them very much for the opportunity that it will give me.

This week: 19th. October

Weather Report Week Ending 19/10/07

Maximum Temperature for the week 30.5C (87F) on Thurs. 5 readings above our monthly average of 20.1C.

Minimum Temperature for the week 3.1C (38F) on Sun. 1 reading above our monthly average of 8.1C.

Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another quite warm and very dry week, 2 days of about 10C above our monthly average. We have had no rain recorded at all this week. Quite cool nights, all but one night below our monthly average, however, thankfully, we have had no frost.

This week in the vineyard:

We have started our summer pruning (breaking off water shoots that are growing around the trunk of the vine). This job will take my 2 workers quite a few weeks.

This week we have had a drilling rig turn up to put down a new water bore for us (we have been waiting for about 3 months, very busy people given the current water situation in South Australia). They have plugged up one of our old bores that was leaking sand and saline water into the underground aquifer. They are now ready to put down a new bore for us, this will happen early next week. We will be casing this bore in PVC to ensure that this bore will never corrode away like the last one did. The photo shows the rig set up ready to start drilling next week.