In order to determine the month of harvest in Australia, you need to understand the weather and climatic conditions of the continent.
When it's summer, Australia's winter
The smallest continent on the planet is surrounded by such climatic zones: subequatorial, tropical and subtropical. Geographers, considering the island of Tasmania as part of Australia, add another temperate climate zone.
The tropical belt is the widest, so the mainland is the most arid on the planet. Less rainfall occurs only in Antarctica. The location of Australia in the southern hemisphere determines the main feature of the climate: winter begins in June and summer in December.
Characteristic of the seasons:
- Winter - June-August. However, there is no winter familiar to Russians. This is the rainy season, the average air temperature is around +15 ... +17 degrees, although in the state of Victoria you can snowboard on the snowboard.
- Spring - September-November. It is not too cold and not very hot here at this time.
- Summer - December-February. But it’s on the calendar. The real summer begins earlier, it comes already in late October - early November, when the temperature rises to +30 degrees.
- Autumn - March-May.
When Harvested in Australia
Everywhere in the world, the main crop is harvested in the fall. The same thing happens on the smallest mainland. April (mid-fall) is Australia's harvest month when grains, oilseeds and vegetables, as well as grapes, are harvested in the fields. It is during this period that many national holidays fall, the most important of which is Easter. But the tropical climate has introduced features in the seasonality of the harvest of agricultural plants with a short growing season - cereals and vegetables. There are also features for picking fruit.
Wheat in Australia is harvested 2 times a year. The first time in April, the second in December, when winter crops ripen. Crops are quite rich, while 60% of the grain is exported.
A large number of sunny days on the mainland and an average annual temperature of +25 degrees contribute to the fact that vegetables in Australia ripen 3 times a year. This ensures the collection of up to 300 tons per year of products such as potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, etc.
In the south and southeast of the country gardening is especially developed. Citrus fruits, plums, cherries, apricots and peaches are grown in irrigated orchards. Queensland actively collects the most famous Australian fruits: bananas, pineapples, papaya and mangoes. They ripen after the New Year. January is also the month of harvest in Australia. Fruits are harvested for half a year.
Country Agriculture
Agriculture in Australia is the main branch of the state economy. It is notable for its high marketability due to the fact that grain and vegetable crops are harvested several times a year here, and the fruit harvest period is also extended. The climate is favorable in terms of the amount of heat and light that plants receive during the year, but frequent droughts make it impossible to use the land intensively without irrigation.
Artificial irrigation is the main problem in Australia's agriculture, since crop production and vegetable growing occupy the bulk of crop production here. The areas occupied by the cultivation of wheat on the mainland are the largest in the world. Cereals, oilseeds and legumes are used for domestic consumption by the population and livestock feed, as well as for export.
One of the important components of the country's economy is viticulture and winemaking, the income from which annually does not fall below 2 billion Australian dollars.
Livestock farmers in Australia are engaged in sheep farming, producing the highest quality and most expensive wool in the world, dairy and beef cattle breeding, pig breeding, and poultry farming are also developed. In Australia, horses and camels are bred. Much attention is paid to beekeeping.
Summary
Summing up, we can say that the main month of harvesting in Australia is April. Cereals are harvested twice (in April and December), vegetables - three times a year (in April, mid-December and once in the off-season), fruits are harvested from January to June.