Author Archives: Gordon Rogers

Rainman StreamFlow

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Rainman StreamFlow is a decision-support tool that helps farmers to predict rainfall at a specific location within a specified time period and can be used to:

  • Analyse records for individual locations for seasonal, monthly and daily patterns.
  • Forecast seasonal rainfall based on the Southern Oscillation Index or Sea Surface Temperatures.
  • Use group locations for spatial analysis.
  • Import monthly, daily rainfall and streamflow data.
  • Print results as tables, graphs, charts or maps.

Rainman StreamFlow is a software package that uses historical weather records to forecast seasonal rainfall and streamflow. Weather records used are from 3,800 rainfall locations and    400 streamflow gauging stations. The forecasts are based on the Southern Oscillation Index and sea surface temperatures of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The type of outputs from Rainman are shown below. These indicate rainfall in eastern Australia over the previous 12 months, as well as the chance of rain within the next three months at Emerald, Qld.

rainman Australia map rainman Emerald

 

 

Rainman Streamflow is available on CD and is currently free. Email Ross Ballin, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Queensland), for a copy of the CD. Email: ross.ballin@daff.qld.gov.au, Phone: 07 4688 1468

There is more information about the software on the QDAFF website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irrigation Optimiser

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Irrigation Optimiser helps growers to decide what irrigated crops to plant based on water availability. The tool may have applicability for vegetable producers, but – like CropMate – all the development work and testing has been carried out with rice or grain producers.

Irrigation Optimiser is a web-based tool that identifies the optimal allocation of water and land for a grower’s irrigated farming system. It calculates expected yield, costs, amount of water, optimal area, gross margin and profit for each crop.

The aim of the irrigation optimiser is to help growers be better prepared to:

  • Cope with the impact of increased climate variability and decreased reliability in water supply.
  • Benefit or reduce exposure from high market volatility, and minimise the impact of the cost-price squeeze.

Irrigation Optimiser can help growers achieve the aim by modelling the impact of alternative agronomic practices and whole-of-farm irrigation strategies on the trade-offs between whole-farm profitability ($/ML), economic risk and environmental outcomes for farm businesses across Australia. The development team has used eight case studies in NSW and Qld to validate the model.

To use the tool, you enter information about your own farm, such as:

  • Farm description
  • Water sources
  • Crops you could grow
  • Soil type
  • Expected costs
  • Expected prices

Based on your inputs, the Irrigation Optimiser displays the results (e.g. amount of water to apply to maximise profit over the whole farm) in a simple format in your web browser.

Click HERE  to visit the site and download this software. Alternatively contact Dr Daniel Rodriguez – d.rodriguez@uq.edu.au – for more information.

CropMate

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CropMate is a web-based application that helps growers analyse climate and weather information for their location so that they can make informed planning and management decisions at different points during the crop cycle. Although designed primarily for grain producers and associated industries, CropMate could also prove useful for vegetable growers in eastern Australia.

The software can be used to plan when to plant, compare prices of fertilisers, or work out nutritional requirements given available climate and soil information. CropMate™ is divided into 5 modules, which match the 5 stages of the crop cycle – Pre-season planning, sowing, spraying, growing and harvest.

CropMate™ is available online – click HERE to visit the website.