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Welcome from the Director
The past month has been a very busy period for the South-West WA Hub, and shows no signs of slowing down, particularly with the Hub Directors meeting in Darwin, the Dowerin and Newdegate Machinery Field Days, Soil Science Australia's tour, the revision of Drought Hub Priorities, Tarin Rock pop-up field day, and the launch of the Transformational Projects Program to kick start September.
The Hub has been working tirelessly to finalise the revised drought resilience priorities. Building on the workshops the Hub hosted for its four Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) in July, the team held further consultation via Regional Nodes in August.
This list of priorities feeds into the launch of the Hub's new Transformational Projects Program small grant round.
Led by the South-West WA Hub with funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF), the Hub’s Transformational Projects Program is seeking expressions of interest for projects that aim to transform current agricultural systems and address drought challenges.
It is intended that successful projects will be announced in October and that project delivery will take place from December 2023 to June 2025.
Looking to the weeks ahead, Hub Project Manager Kellie-Jane Pritchard will be facilitating the Hub's study tour exchange experience of the South Australian Hub from 17- 22 September. This promises to build best practice and resilience knowledge for participants to implement on-farm.
We look forward to engaging with stakeholders throughout September for what remains of Spring Field day season.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues, friends or clients.
Mark Holland | Hub Director
South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub
Hub project in focus
Transformational projects program grants now live
The South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub), which is led by the Grower Group Alliance and funded by the Australian Government’s $5 billion Future Drought Fund (FDF) program, aims to improve the drought resilience and preparedness of local farmers and their communities, and to foster agricultural innovation.
The SW WA Hub is opening a small grants program to its Hub Consortium Partners to the value of $1m for transformational projects that lead to improved drought resilience within Western Australia’s agricultural systems.
Hub Consortium Partners will be notified by direct email with the links to the program guidelines and EOI application form.
Caption: The SW WA Hub's Southern Rangelands Regional Advisory Committee which met in-person and online from Kalgoorlie in July.
Drought resilience priorities reviewed
Local drought resilience priorities reviewed in July, were again considered during recent meetings of the SW WA Hub's four Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) with further consultation via the Regional Nodes networks during August.
The committees also discussed FDF-funded projects and identified the 'gaps' for new projects.
The RACs comprise skills-based representatives of agricultural industries for each of four agro-ecological zones covered by the hub and represent the agro-ecological zones Southern Rangelands, Mid West & Gascoyne Coastal, South West and Wheatbelt.
If you have ideas for drought resilience initiatives in the region, contact the SW WA Hub staff, or your local RAC member, or Regional Node Lead organisation.
The updated Drought Resilience Priorities are now under resources on the hub website.
See the SW WA Hub webpages for a list of contacts.
Drought Hub Team Out and About
Tarin Rock takes a look at soil engineering and water harvesting
Hub Adoption Manager Julianne Hill was joined by WaterSmart Dams (WSD) project team member Bonny Stutsel (UWA researcher) at the Tarin Rock pop-up field day on Tuesday 5 September. The field day looked at a range of soil engineering and water harvesting strategies.
The Tarin Rock event was hosted by the South-West WA Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation Hub in collaboration with event partners GRDC and DPIRD.
Drought Hub joins STEMXX in Bunbury
Recently, the Drought Hub was invited to participate in a STEMXX event, talking to primary school students from many schools in the south west of WA about opportunities for them to become involved in agriculture as a career, focusing on the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) angle. Kellie-Jane Pritchard and Julianne Hill from the Drought Hub; Jeisane Accioly from Western Beef and Meredith Guthrie from DPIRD joined about 20 other professionals to talk about science with these students.
National Soil Community of Practice visits WA
The National Soil Extension Community of Practice, composed of the Regional Soil Coordinators, the Soil CRC and led by Soil Science Australia visited WA last month – joined by local NRM, grower group, Hub Director Mark Holland and presenters.
WA soil researchers showcased some of the work in WA including how soil data and land classification supports industry development.
The Soil and Land commissioner, Soil and Land Conservation Council, and key industry networks such as the Grower Group Alliance, Drought Hub, and SoilsWest were in attendance. They joined various field trips to broadacre farms
Corrigin farmer, Cindy Stevens gave an overview of her farming business, journey to soil amelioration, and her current goals.
A tour of composting facility Richgro explored a circular economy system producing materials that can be used in gardens and on-farm – all from food waste and through the power of microbes.
Training for attendees including workshops on the methods used in the Healthy Estuaries program for understanding phosphorus in soils and calculating nutrient requirements and soil pit classification.
Hub Adoption Officers Theo Nabben and Maddison McNeil ran a Monitoring and Evaluation training to round out the Community of Practice experience. The closed session interrogated how we demonstrate the impact of investment in a meaningful way and use ways to learn how to improve are critical for project success and R&D investment.
Complete survey to have your say on soils
A national survey to assess soil issues, knowledge gaps and research and extension opportunities across Australia is open.
The anonymous results will be summarised for the Regional Soil Coordinator project in a report to DAFF to ultimately help inform the design and delivery of targeted soil interventions to address priorities under the National Soil Strategy.
Grain traceability survey
Is grain traceability worthwhile or practical? What proportion of consumers will pay for traceability credentials?
UWA researchers are seeking to identify and represent farmers’ positions and views on potential traceability solutions, focusing on farm sustainability as part of the Investigating the economics of grain traceability investment decisions project.
Participate in Farm to Port survey
Grain growers are encouraged to complete a survey that will assist research aimed at optimising grain supply chains.
The ‘Farm to Port’ study is led by The University of WA and supported by the SW WA Hub through its student bursary program.
UWA PhD student Garima, who recently received an extension and adoption bursary from the SW WA Hub, said the aim of the study was to produce a framework, based on simulations, that could assist growers to optimise decisions during and after harvest.
“This could include decisions relating to transportation, storage, packaging and marketing of crops,” she said.
Landscape Rehydration Field Day and Contour Grading School
Hosted by the Northern Hub, Top End Conservation Management and Hewitt, join this two-day sustainable land management event on Wednesday 13 September. This unique field day will provide you with valuable insights, practical demonstrations, and networking opportunities to enhance your understanding of sustainable rehydration land practices.
Program Highlights:
The program features a comprehensive agenda tailored to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in sustainable land management. Some key highlights include:
Day 1: An array of sessions covering topics such as practice change for improved productivity and resilience, insights from industry leaders on sustainable operations, landscape rehydration methodologies, catchment function analysis, and much more.
Evening: A showcase of innovative technologies available for Central Australian land managers, along with networking opportunities over drinks and nibbles.
Day 2: A practical session on constructing contour banks for landscape rehydration works, providing hands-on experience in the field.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn from experienced practitioners, gain insights into sustainable land management practices, and network with fellow professionals in the field.
Weather in conversation - the popular tools and apps used to manage risk
The different tools and weather Apps growers are accessing to give them up-to-date information; or help in managing future conditions, has been topical conversation of late.
The hub team have held conversations with the Bureau of Meterology BoM and other bodies, as well as consulting with growers about what tools they use to check what the weather is doing.
Here are a few that have come up as part of this consultative process:
My Climate View
My Climate View is a digital information product providing commodity and location-specific climate predictions for Australian farmers for the next 50 years. It's being developed in partnership with government, industry and the research sector. Have a look at this tool here.
DR.SAT
This free tool provides information including:
· Satellite images and data Updated (roughly) every 6 days and back to 2017 to show how the land has changed across your property and region to help monitor trends.
· Self-assessments to facilitate strategic thinking for whole of farm planning, including environmental, financial, and personal/social signals.
· Climate projections of the future climate specific to your location. This data and information helps assess and respond to risks.
· Practical options to improve resilience, including videos, case studies, podcasts and directories that help you find solutions that work for you.
Click here for more.
Australian CliMate
As its name suggests this tool is a mate for decision makers who use knowledge of system status (e.g. soil water, heat sum) and probabilities of weather events to manage risk.
It is question focused analyses for exploration of weather data across Australia by interrogating long-term climate records of rainfall, temperature, radiation, and derived variables such as heat sum, soil water, nitrate accumulation, yield potential, drought, seasonal forecasts and time trend analyses.
The hub team has noticed this tool is used by growers, agronomists and consultants alike.
See for yourself here.
DPIRD Seasonal Climate Outlook
DPIRD's Seasonal Climate Outlook (SCO) is a monthly newsletter that summarises climate outlooks for the next three months produced by DPIRD's Statistical Seasonal Forecast (SSF) system specifically for the Western Australian grainbelt, and by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. It provides a review of recent climate indicators, including ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation), the Indian Ocean Dipole, the Southern Annular Mode, as well as local sea surface temperature and pressures systems. At appropriate times of year it also includes an overview of the rainfall outlook for the growing season produced by the SSF.
Find all this and more on the DPIRD webpage.
These are just some of what is available to growers. The hub is open to learning about new tools and resources in this space, particularly what you find most useful.
New name and website for climate tool
The Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) program has a new name and website for its farmer-focused climate information tool.
My Climate View is a free online climate information tool helping farmers understand what the future climate might mean for their location, down to a 5km2 resolution, to inform decision-making and build climate resilience.
It presents agriculturally relevant historical and future climate information in one place so farmers can explore climate trends for specific commodities at a local scale.
Along with the new name and website, other updates to the My Climate View tool include the addition of climate information for avocados, cherries and chickpeas, significant improvements to how users can access and view their local and commodity-specific climate information, and insight into how climate information is calculated.
CSA is a collaboration between CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology and part of the FDF's investment in better climate information for Australia's agriculture sector.
Find out about Future Drought Fund
The Future Drought Fund (FDF) provides secure, continuous funding for drought resilience initiatives and will help Australian farmers and communities prepare for the impacts of drought.
