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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Sarah Lansdown

Spring to bring new life to the farm, but not much rainfall

One Canberra farmer is beyond excited to welcome more than 100 acres of spring goodness.

Annie McGrath, owner of the Majura Valley Free Range Eggs farm, trusts the season to bring "new life" to her farm, animals and crops.

An adorable bunch of baby animals (calves and lambs) have been born on the farm and they are already busy chasing each other on the pasture.

"I just love spring because of all the new life like the baby calves, they're just full of energy," Mrs McGrath said.

Winter wasn't too harsh on the farm. They had plenty of small crops, fodder crops and oats to keep going. The farm also hosted a big sunflower maze in autumn which attracted thousands of visitors.

Majura farmer Annie McGrath celebrates the coming of spring on her farm, with young chickens, lambs, puppies and calves. Picture by Karleen Minney

"We'd like to keep farming as long as we can so that people can actually have some connection to nature living in a city, and see farming and how it's done," Mrs McGrath said.

In spring, the farmer is preparing to plant sunflowers, corn and other garden vegetables that will make into her family's farm shop.

But most of all, Mrs McGrath is praying for continuous rain this season.

She'll be relying on a good number of showers to help produce hay in early summer. Enough hay would ensure her animals eat well in the winter and produce enough milk for their young ones.

Annie McGrath greets young calves on her Majura farm. Picture by Karleen Minney

The Bureau of Meteorology released the long-range forecast for spring on Thursday.

Unfortunately for the farmers, most of the country is likely or very likely to have warmer and drier weather than average from September to November.

The ACT falls into the part of the country that is likely to have below median rainfall but the NSW South Coast is set to have average rainfall in spring.

The long-range forecast takes in the possibility of an El Nino forming and the likely positive Indian Ocean Dipole in spring.

Senior climatologist Hugh McDowell said the tail end of the ski season could be affected by the warmer conditions.

"Warmer temperatures and sunny days aren't a great combination for the snow on the mountains. When we see El Nino conditions, we generally see less snowfall across the across the ski field.

"But having said that, it's very variable. There's some El Nino seasons that have seen more snowfall than than others and non-El Nino seasons because snowfall is so variable in this part of the world."

El Nino typically brings below-average spring rainfall for eastern Australia and above-average daytime temperatures for the southern two-thirds of the country.

A positive Indian Ocean Dipole is also likely during spring, which relates to the difference in sea surface temperature between the west and east of the Indian Ocean. When paired with an El Nino event, the drying effects are stronger and more widespread.

Mr McDowell said the spring outlook was very different to the wet conditions Australia has seen in the past three years.

"The forecast is almost an opposite of what we saw this time last year...It's likely to be a very different spring to what we've seen in recent years."

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