New climate toolkit site offers weather window

Monday 30 August 2010 | From Dairy Australia

Australia’s dairy farmers now have a new, free, screen-based tool to help them understand our changing weather.

The Dairy Climate Toolkit website www.dairyaustralia.com.au/climate has been developed by Dairy Australia as an easy-to-use guide to the changes ahead in climate.

The toolkit came about through Dairy Australia’s Confidence to Grow program which looked at the dairy industry’s capacity to manage climate risk. The program identified the need for a climate resource kit for service providers and farmers.

Dairy Australia Natural Resource Management Program Manager Catherine Phelps said as climate variability increased and governments and consumers wanted to reduce greenhouse gases, the dairy industry had to be ready to respond.

“Dairy Australia is involved in to ensure the dairy industry is ready for no matter what policies are introduced to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions,” Ms Phelps said.

“There’s been a lot of research and work put into developing the toolkit website which offers new insights into climate from a dairying perspective. It is giving people access to information on the climate and what is likely to happen in their region and on their farm.”

The toolkit can help answer dairy farmers’ questions about climate variability in simple-to-understand language. If you are interested in the issue of carbon sequestration read the up-to-the-minute developments or if you want to know your farm’s emissions you can use the interactive calculator D-GAS.

Other features on the site include information specific for each dairying region which cover:

• Climate change impacts on your farm
• Adapting your farm to climate change
• Rainfall and temperature projections
• Regional contacts
• Regional case studies
• Potential farm impacts
• Future pasture growth
• Farm management strategies

“The site looks at every aspect of climate and relates it back to the everyday. Dairy farmers will find it a useful addition to their toolkit. It will help them look ahead and adapt – even mitigate – the effects of climate variability,” Ms Phelps said.

“Learning about climate change is the first step towards coping with it and, eventually, maybe even profiting from it,” she said.

The toolkit website is just one of many examples of the dairy services levy at work. For more information on this and other levy investments visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au

For more information contact Felicity Gallagher on ph 03 9694 3894 or 0417 540 059 or email fgallagher@dairyaustralia.com.au