Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 4236 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 196 — Summer 2016 STRATEGIES AND PRODUCTS TO MANAGE MARKET WATER l  Water markets have changed fundamentally in recent years, with a reduction of water available for irrigation in the Murray–Darling Basin and the separation of land and water titles. l  Recent seasonal changes have shown the benefit of a consistent carryover strategy that enables irrigators to average out the benefits of access to water and take advantage of good prices for later years of low water availability. l  ‘Parking’ carryover provides irrigators with an opportunity to obtain more water, at low prices, than is possible against their own entitlements. l  Irrigators can manage risk of water availability by diversifying the types of entitlement held, and using different types of water products. l  Irrigators with a good water availability strategy are likely to secure more water than those with an inflexible approach. Irrigators need to be prepared to effectively manage the risks associated with availability of water. This season showed how quickly availability and temporary markets change. Jack Bennetto1 and Andrew Bomm2 1H2OX, Bendigo; 2Progressive Agriculture, Wagga Wagga SOME useful observations about water markets can be made, not only as we come out of a dry season and into a wet one in the southern Murray-Darling Basin but also in view of institutional and organisational changes to irrigation water. Two main supply and demand factors have changed permanently in the last decade. Changed market fundamentals Everyone is aware of the Basin Plan and the volume of water that has been shifted from production to environmental use. Some small volumes of this water may be traded back to production on occasion but in practice this water is no longer available to irrigators, so supply has been reduced by about a quarter. Equally significant has been the separation of land and water titles. Water is now much more mobile and this has had a significant effect on demand. Water is moving more easily to crops with high commodity prices, and new irrigated cropping areas are spreading water demand to even more hectares of country. Nut plantings in particular are expanding rapidly in response to high commodity prices, and this continues to increase demand and price in water markets. QUICK TAKE