This is probably the most asked question I get as I go about avoiding working in the heat!
There were a few thunderstorms about last week and a few areas in the Mid North copped a heavy downpour, but overall it is remaining dry – very dry.
The general consensus is that a significant rain event is getting closer – it must be, as most districts have only received less than 5mm for the entire year. Even summer weeds are struggling to survive!
Which brings me to the long-awaited question … what will be the date for the season break? After last year’s dismal failure of a definitive break, my hunch is that a significant break this year is on the cards – something that will please farmers, gardeners and the folk from SA Power Networks.
So put your thinking caps on, observe the signs of impending rainfall, and select your date. The season break competition start will be announced soon.
Almond farming at Murtho
Now this is something you do not see every day! Almond farming at Murtho, near Renmark, is a large and expensive industry (water-wise).
Every almond (a single almond, not the tree) requires around three litres of water.
What about your almond milk latte? Each litre of almond “milk” contains about 97 per cent water – that is quite a value add.
An almond orchard in the Riverland requires about one and a half metres of water annually and produces about three to four tonnes of almonds per hectare. Last season they produced about five tonne.
Why grow them in such low rainfall areas? Because dryland conditions produce healthier trees, with less disease.
The largest almond producing area in the world is California, which produces 80 per cent of the world’s almonds. The mediterranean climate requires substantial irrigation to produce a crop during California’s dry summers.
Harvesting an almond crop is an interesting procedure. Shaker machines are driven to the base of each tree, where they hug the trunk and then wildly shake the tree (a little bit like Elvis).
The Shaker machine is followed up by another machine which drags the fallen nuts from under the tree into a windrow where yet another machine comes along to load the windrows into a cart.
The almonds are then transferred to a small bunker from which a semi-trailer loads the almonds and delivers them to a processing factory.
