The North East Catchment Management Authority is undertaking a number of case studies, demonstrating how leading farmers from North East Victoria are managing the risks associated with climate change. The Embedding Climate Adaptation in Agriculture project is working with the region’s farmers to determine how the use of climate projections supports their farm management. This project is supported by North East Catchment Management Authority, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
Andrew Russell is a partner in a Rutherglen family farming operation driven by data.
This data covers the full gamut of the seed production and farming businesses - weather records, trial results, seed quality specifications, soil information - are all important to decisions made every day and across seasons.
Mr Russell said weather data collected on his property was now proving so valuable he expected to install one or two more weather stations on farm to support predicting and managing climate change variability.
“We have a baseline. Instead of trying to catch rainbows we set rotations and we will modify that if the Bureau says there is a higher probability of a dry year, a drought year or a wet year,” he said.