IT’S NO surprise that industries most susceptible to impacts from a changing climate are the first movers on adaption strategies.
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Future climates forecast put viticulture first and stone fruits in the firing line, with increasingly variable weather and more extreme heat events.
University of Melbourne Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre director Professor Richard Eckard isn’t surprised to see viticulture making the first substantial investments into adaption, which other industries would have to follow sooner rather than later, he said (see page right)
“Viticulture has some of the most sensitive indicators to climate change and they keep the tightest records on climate change,” he said.
Treasury Wines has 14,000 hectares of vineyards including 9000ha across Australia with the remainder spread across North America, Asia and Europe.
Sustainability manager Gioia Small told the recent Agribusiness Outlook conference in Sydney said the company got serious about its adaption strategy during the millennium drought, when South Australia’s 2009 water allocations were set at 19 per cent.
“That was an ‘Oh shit!’ moment,” she said, adding that since then Treasury has acted swiftly.
Treasury’s grapes have been harvested one to two days earlier each year for the past 20 years and the gaps between when different varieties ripen is closer together, Ms Small said.
White and red vintages, 21 days apart 20 ago, are now seven days apart. Shiraz, which ripened over 30 days in 1998, is down to just 15.
Early and faster ripening can harm flavour, increase production costs and push harvest into the height of summer – increasing risks of both extreme heat events and smoke-tainted grapes “which taste like an ashtray”.
Grapes need time on the vine to develop full flavour profiles, but that also means more sugar content and higher alcohol from fermentation – which would create additional production costs in stripping alcohol from the wine.
Treasury has shifted pruning from winter into spring to delay vintages and implemented a real-time logistics monitoring system to accommodate the compressed harvest windows.
Brown Brothers spent $30 million on Gunn’s 400ha of Tasmanian vineyards in 2010, which the company said would help hedge against drought in their mainland operations.
New Pinot Noir lines were also on the agenda and the company bought as far south as it could because climate predictions forecast mainland climates would become too hot.
Hope for farmers in hotter climate
“All farmers need to work out how to adapt to variable climates,” says University of Melbourne Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre director Professor Richard Eckard.
“When I visit farmers and tell them this, they say ‘that’s nothing new – the climate has always been variable, but latest info suggests the variability will be never-ended.”
The dairy industry, which is “begging to think about adaption” is already feeling the pinch, he said. “We made predictions in 2009 for dairy pasture growth in 2030, but now looking back over conditions in the past ten years, our future predictions actually look like what has already played out,” Prof. Eckard said.
However, there will be new opportunities. Southern NSW will likely see weather patterns move southward, with rainfall patterns more evenly distributed across seasons.
Graziers should look to summer-growth dominated pastures Prof. Eckard said.
