Thursday 31 July 2025

Technical decision-making support for drought affected farmers

All farmers, anywhere in Victoria, can register for a free consultation with a farm management specialist. 

The advisory service offers a session of up to 3 hours (face-to-face or online) and a follow-up call, to help farmers take stock and develop a plan for managing drought conditions.

The advice is suited to your situation, from a consultant that you nominate from the registered panel. 

Agronomists, livestock nutritionists, veterinarians, pasture and grazing specialists and farm business advisors, can support you with: 

• feed and water budgeting 
• farm safety and workload management  
• farm business and financial management 
• soil health and pasture re-establishment 
• animal health and welfare, and more.

For more information about drought support: www.agriculture.vic.gov.au/drought or call 136 186. 

Feed budget support

Help is available to develop feed budgets or assist with livestock feeding decisions – vital for maintaining the health of livestock and while pastures start to recover following recent rain.

Any Victorian farmer can get help with feed budgeting by booking a one-on-one session with a specialist from our panel of farm advisors at https://go.vic.gov.au/452dHXb.

For practical tools and resources visit Agriculture Victoria’s Feeding Livestock website www.feedinglivestock.vic.gov.au or call 136 186.

Benchmarking to help growers better manage urea

Image: Dr Kamal Adhikari with his dynamic chambers experiment

Important research to help grain growers use nitrogen more efficiently is underway at Agriculture Victoria’s Horsham SmartFarm.

Agriculture Victoria research scientist Kamal Adhikari said dryland cropping farmers commonly top dress urea as a nitrogen (N) fertiliser on their paddocks in anticipation of forecast rain.

‘Urea represents one of a farmer's single largest variable cost inputs,’ Dr Adhikari said.

‘Getting it right has major implications for on-farm profitability. The downside of urea fertiliser is that much of its benefit for a crop can be permanently lost in a process known as volatilisation.

‘Volatilisation is where ammonia (NH₃) gas is released from urea granules to the atmosphere.

‘Losing nitrogen through volatilisation doesn’t just have an economic impact on yields and profitability, it also affects the environment via greenhouse gas emissions,’ he said.

Using the dynamic chamber method, Dr Adhikari hopes to assess ammonia losses. He has previously used this method in New Zealand to measure NH₃ volatilisation of intensive dairy pasture systems and can see its potential for Australian dryland cropping systems.

He believes it has several advantages over other ‘standard’ micrometeorological methods such as alpha samplers.

‘The dynamic chamber method only requires a small area to operate, so we can set up multiple plots with different conditions to study at the same time,’ he said.

Dr Adhikari said although the primary aim of the study is to benchmark this new method against alpha samplers, it is already collecting data that may be useful to growers.

‘Recently, we top dressed a paddock with urea in anticipation of a large rain front but we only received a fraction of the forecast rain,’ he said.

‘The urea granules had dissolved, but not enough to wash this urea into the soil where it could be used by the wheat.

‘We suspect that some has been lost to volatilisation but by the end of this study, we will know exactly how much of the N was actually lost.’

Dr Adhikari hopes the research will lead to the creation of a decision support tool for growers to help understand the impact of urea top dressing, depending on how much rain is expected, when it’s likely to fall and soil conditions.

More information on Agriculture Victoria SmartFarms and research is available at www.agriculture.vic.gov.au/research

Sheepvention – Women in Agriculture lunch

Sheepvention will be hosting the first Women in Agriculture luncheon this year with the help of Agriculture Victoria. 

A chance to connect with likeminded women who champion rural resilience and community, Agriculture Victoria is organising an impressive panel of women in agriculture to tell their stories. 

Presenters: 

• Georgina Gubbins, Warrnambool cattle and sheep producer, founding member and chair of Food and Fibre Great South Coast. 
• Esmee de Looff, Agribusiness Consultant from Pinion Advisory. 
• Bec Cruise, Carwarp cattle and sheep producer, Producer Demonstration Site member

Attendees can engage with the panel discussion while enjoying a delicious 2-course plated meal by The Speckled Frog, and a refreshing mocktail crafted by Noodledoof Brewing and Distilling Co. 

Agriculture Victoria staff will be there to offer information and resources for drought from our stall in the Innovation Hub across the two-day event. 

Ag Vic Talk season 10

What's On

Details about these events and more can be found on our website.

Sheepvention

When: 3-4 August, 10 am - 2 pm 
Where: Site 544–546, Innovations Hub and Producers’ Market, Hamilton Showgrounds, Shakespeare Street, Hamilton

We are excited to return to Sheepvention for another year.

With experts on hand to answer your questions, our focus will be on drought management, our expert staff will also be showcasing a range of current projects.

We are proud to be supporting the inaugural Women in Agriculture luncheon as well – a chance to connect with likeminded women who champion rural resilience and community.

Visit us at site 544–546 in the Innovation Hub.

Here and now workshop: Warrnambool 

When: Tuesday 21 August, 10 am - 2 pm 
Where: The Flying Horse, 10691 Princes Highway, Warrnambool

Join local and national speakers to discuss practical and tangible tools for planning your forage base going forward.

While farming in our region experiences seasonal variability that has challenged most of us; we continue to work towards mitigating risk. 

Workshop 1 organised by Aggies without Borders.

Presenters: Jane Bunn, Phil White, Laura Tweddle, and CropX.

Planning your feedbase, water and nutrient value –   Warrnambool

When: Thursday 21 August, 10 am to 1 pm 
Where: The Flying Horse, 10691 Princes Hwy, Warrnambool. 

Join local and national speakers to discuss practical and tangible tools for planning your forage base going forward.

While farming in our region experiences seasonal variability that has challenged most of us; we continue to work towards mitigating risk.  

Join consultant Laura Tweddle and a team of speakers who are passionate to share their knowledge on future planning your feed base and profitability.

GHCMA Scheduling workshops for irrigators 

In good times and in bad: adaptive skills for your farming future – Wonwondah and Dunkeld

Contacting Agriculture Victoria

Call 136 186 from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call (except for mobiles and public telephones).

If you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, contact us through the National Relay Service at 133 677 or visit the National Relay Service.

All contact points can be found at: agriculture.vic.gov.au/about-us/contact-us

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