Advisors across multiple farming industries are now able to help farmers better understand long term weather data and climate variability through a project led by the Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (the Hub).
As the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) predicts unusually high temperatures for the next three months, southern NSW farmers are preparing for a hotter than average season. The hot summer forecast will make it challenging for producers on many fronts, including animal and pasture health, water supply and increased fire risk.
The Hub partnered with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) to develop resources to train almost 40 advisors across six industries to work with farmers to apply seasonal climate forecasts on-farm.
The Forewarned is Forearmed Climate Coaching project is the final stage of the national Forewarned is Forearmed project. As part of this project, BoM worked with research and industry groups to develop five forecasting tools focused on heat, cold and rainfall extreme weather events.
In the final phase of this five-year project, the Hub worked with dairy, beef, grains, sugar and wine reference groups to develop industry-specific resources. This included learning resources tailored to farmers as well as pilot ‘train the trainer’ deliverer and producer workshops.
Agrista consultant, Tanisha Shields said, “Having a better understanding of weather forecasting language, such as medians, averages, deciles and probability, provides growers with more confidence to use long range weather outlooks in their on-farm management decisions.”
To access the BoM long range forecast, visit:www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/rainfall/summary.
For more information on the Forewarned is Forearmed Climate Coaching project, visit:www.csu.edu.au/research/southern-nsw-drought-resilience-hub/projects/forewarned-is-forearmed-climate-coaching