Drought is an enduring feature of the Australian landscape with significant economic, social, and environmental impacts.
That’s why the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), in partnership with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), has hosted a series of workshops to assist broadacre farmers across Queensland and New South Wales.
The workshops, held across 10 different rural and regional areas, were designed to help farmers make informed and personalised decisions to actively manage variable rainfall and drought.
UniSQ School of Agriculture and Environmental Science professor Keith Pembleton said choosing suitable cropping strategies is crucial in reducing a farm’s vulnerability to drought.
“Avoiding drought sensitivity while taking full advantage of high rainfall seasons requires farmers to design well-balanced cropping strategies,” Professor Pembleton said.
“This complex task can be assisted by a support system of agronomists and our extension-focused decision-support tools.”
The farmer-centric workshops also targeted agronomists, consultants and other stakeholders involved in grains production.
Queensland DAF senior economist Dr Andrew Zull said there is no one-size-fits-all approach to sustainable farming.
“Our workshops provide an adult-learning approach which allows farmers to come up with personalised cropping decisions that best correspond to their own circumstances,” Dr Zull said
“While winter-dominant cereal cropping systems may be the most widely diffused in many locations across southern Queensland, we have seen a strong increase in diversity over the recent decade.
“Choosing the right system for your own circumstances is not driven in isolation by the prevailing rainfall pattern, but also influenced by labour availability, pest and disease issues, and the need to diversify risk across crops and commodities.”
UniSQ Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems research fellow Dr Uwe Grewer has been conducting targeted research to support the capacity-building workshops, including analysis of a large range of cropping system options using the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM).
Dr Grewer’s research builds the backbone of the online decision-support tools of the Agricultural Risk Management Online (ARMonline) platform.
The first workshops were held at Dalby, Warwick, Coonamble, Narrabri, Tuckerang and Roma, with more locations to be announced in coming months.
