Farm recovery after bushfire

Bushfires may affect crops, water supplies, soils and pastures. Recovery information about them is provided below.

You may also call the Customer Service Centre on 13 61 86 if:

• the information you seek is not listed
• you wish to speak to a staff member about your particular fire recovery requirements
• you need other agricultural advice.

Protecting farm water supplies

Livestock need a sufficient and reliable supply of unpolluted water. For information on protecting and determining the quality of farm water supplies, see:

• Water quality for farm water supplies
• Water supply for stock containment areas
• Maintaining your farm dam
• Organic pollution in farm dams
• Measuring the salinity of water

Protecting soils and pastures

To protect soils and water after a fire, careful management of paddocks and livestock is needed.

Fire changes pastures in different ways depending on the intensity of the fire, the pasture species, the fertility of the soil and the timing of the autumn break and other rain.

To find out more about protecting paddocks where groundcover is limiting, see:

• Paddock protection and livestock management during dry times
• Stock containment areas

• Factsheet: Reducing weed risk (PDF - 521.8 KB)
• Factsheet: Reducing weed risk (WORD - 407.3 KB)

For a quick reference guide to pasture recovery after fire see:

• Pasture recovery after a fire – quick reference guide (PDF - 1.5 MB)
• Pasture recovery after a fire – quick reference guide (WORD - 95.0 KB)

Helping fire-affected crops recover

Although some crops that are affected by fire and radiant heat at first appear devastated, affected plants may fully or partially recover.

The extent of damage and crop loss depends on the degree of heat generated by the fire passing over the crop, the time of year of the fire and the number of rows actually burnt out or damaged.

For information on particular types of crop, see:

• Recovery from fire damage in blueberry orchards
• Recovery from fire damage in fruit orchards
• Recovery of olive groves after fire
• Recovery from fire damage in rubus crops