Agricultural economists at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries have developed a new online tool that helps sugarcane growers to measure farm profitability and planning.

Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner said the Farm Economic Analysis Tool (FEAT) streamlines data entry, allows growers to access regional scenarios and can be used on phones, tablets or computers.

“The developers of the tool have introduced a seamless registration process to make it easy for growers to log on and find their way around,” Mr Furner said.

“Growers can easily identify the profitability of existing farming systems and determine economic impacts from proposed practice changes.

“Other features include assessing options and potential risks to guide decision-making and monitoring the impact of changes.”

Agricultural Economics manager Mark Poggio thanked the FEAT project working group and industry stakeholders for their significant input. 

FEAT is free for the Australian Sugarcane Industry and growers can sign up online at https://featonline.com.au.

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries is offering free FEAT online training workshops in key sugarcane growing regions. To register your interest and to find out more information, please email FEATregistration@daf.qld.gov.au or call (07) 3330 4523.

FEAT online was developed by economists from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries with project partners GP One and is an initiative of the Queensland Government Reef Water Quality program.