Monitoring soil moisture in
grazing systems

Soil Moisture Monitoring

In 2013, BIGG initiated a project to monitor soil moisture in local grazing systems (funded by Landcare). Telemetry based weather monitoring stations located in pasture paddocks at Flaxman Valley, Keyneton, and Koonunga where established, a first for a farming systems group in SA to demonstrate soil moisture monitoring in pastures.

In 2019, a fourth station located in a native pasture paddock at Moculta was installed via funding from Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges NRM Board. Additional support for the project was also received from the AMLR in 2020.

Live data for the Flaxman Valley, Keyneton, Koonunga and Moculta weather stations can be viewed at:

https://bushlinx.au/agbyte/login

Username: SA_Public_Barossa

Password: public25

Once logged-in, select a location from the drop down menu at the top left corner of the page. Soil moisture probe graphs for each site are also available from this menu, see image below:

Weather station dashboard

Each station comprises of:

  • Sub-surface capacitance probes measuring moisture to a depth of 85cm.
  • Automatic rain gauges.
  • Sensors measuring air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, NDVI and solar radiation.

These are connected to a solar powered telemetry unit that transmits data every 15 minutes via a mobile phone network to an internet server. Data downloaded from the server is then used to produce real-time graphs for each site.

Soil moisture probe graphs are available for each site under the following drop-down menu options:

  • SMP Graphs Keyneton Flaxman
  • SMP Graphs Moculta Koonunga

Download the document below for further explanation on how to interpret the graphs.

Soil Moisture Probe Graphs Explanation

Data from other public weather station networks across South Australia can be viewed via the Public Access link on the login page.

Monthly soil moisture monitoring reports – 2017-22

Monthly analysis on the status of the four local paddocks (located at Flaxman Valley, Keyneton, Koonunga and Moculta) being monitored for their soil moisture use.

Case Studies

Videos and Webinars

Surveys and Presentations

Soil moisture presentations at BIGG's Annual Conference - February 2018

Presentations at BIGG’s soil moisture monitoring workshop – April 2014

Disclaimer: The data generated from the BIGG soil moisture monitoring sites is provided for information only. Any actions or decisions made by users is at their sole discretion.