Primary producers will have access to more agricultural industry specific weather and climate information to help make critical business decisions with the latest release of the Bureau of Meteorology’s Forewarned is Forearmed products.

The New Tools

The new tools will improve farm-gate productivity and profitability by allowing users to drill down to their location to view the chance of unseasonal and extreme rainfall and temperature in the weeks, months, or seasons ahead.

Bureau Manager for Agriculture, David McIver, said the tools were informed by farmers’ day to day needs and developed in consultation with the agricultural industry.

“The tools will help a livestock producer decide when to schedule their muster for the safety of their stock and staff, or a horticulturalist choose the day to plant their seeds with confidence there won’t be an unseasonal burst of rain that could wash them away,” Mr McIver said.

The three new tools provide rainfall and temperature forecasts for weekly, monthly, and seasonal timeframes at specific locations, the probability of rainfall over a week, month or season exceeding any amount, and outlooks for three-day rainfall bursts at significant measurements of 15, 25, 50 and 75mm.

Industry Involvement

“The Bureau is committed to product design that is fit-for-purpose for Australian businesses that rely on our information for their operations.

“We’ve worked with the sector to understand their needs and develop tools that enhance their decision-making capability and reduce their risk,” Mr McIver said.

Research partners worked closely with farmers from across Australia via industry reference groups from the dairy, red meat, grains, sugar and wine sectors and played a critical role in the tools development and design.

The tools can be viewed on the Bureau’s website at www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks.

And a live information session is scheduled (see below) which will explore the new FWFA forecast products and provide opportunity for Q&A.

Webinar

Thursday 14 July 1:00pm AEST

Presented by Bureau of Meteorology’s Dr Andrew Watkins (Head of Long-Range Forecasts), Dr Avijeet Ramchurn (Senior Climatologist) and Dale Grey (Seasonal Risk Agronomist, Agriculture Victoria)

Register here: https://unimelb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0D16cJWITMSPgfkmnntBsw

These new tools have been made possible through a five year (2017-2022) nationwide project, ForeWarned is ForeArmed (FWFA), funded by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s Rural R&D for Profit program with co-investment from 14 project partners.

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