Media Release: Evidence in action - From better tools to better decisions
6 May 2025
Cattle farmers Ian and Julie Firth, along with other producers across the Northern Tablelands of NSW, have built resilience in their grazing enterprises through the Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes project, delivered by the University of New England (UNE) Armidale.
The project, supported by the Future Drought Fund, has fostered a community of learning, bringing producers together in workshops and in the paddock. With the guidance of experts from UNE, Glen Innes Natural Resources Advisory Committee (GLENRAC), Southern New England Landcare (SNEL) and Northern Tablelands Local Land Services, they share knowledge about climate forecasts, hone pasture assessment skills and identify the impacts of their grazing and pasture management.
Julie says one of the big things about drought is there’s so much you can’t control, and the project has helped increase their access to information which alleviates some of this stress.
“By doing this coaching program we've been able to learn how to accurately measure the quality and density of our pastures and that helps us to make much better, more informed decisions,” she says.
One of the key tools used in the project is Ag360, which helps producers incorporate climate forecasts into their feed budgets. Ian says the tool is helping them better assess the effectiveness of past decisions as well as informing future ones.
“We…significantly changed our rotational systems after the last drought…when we were lower stocked, trialling some more intensive rotational systems. Having the monitoring from Ag360 is going to help to determine how that has affected our pastures,” he says.
“There's also the prediction side of things using the BOM rainfall within this program and we're using that to assist us in possibly pulling up…our decision markers on how much pasture and whether we're going to feed.”
Julie values that the project allows producers to experiment and validate their gut feelings with scientific data.
“We're grateful for projects like this one that's funded under the Future Drought Fund because it allows us to experiment and to find out with scientific outcomes what we are doing with our gut, we think is right, this gives us some numbers and information to back that up,” she says.
The Firths aren’t the only family who report feeling better prepared to deal with climate variability thanks to this project. Farmers surveyed after participating in the coaching sessions reported large improvements in confidence, skills and knowledge in pasture assessment, using climate forecasts and feed budgeting, with 100% of producers indicating they would continue utilising these to manage their farm businesses.
The Drought Resilient Pastures Landscapes project, led by the University of New England, received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.