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RESOURCES

Grow your industry knowledge, make connections and find out what’s happening across the wider agriculture sector.

SOIL MOISTURE PROBE & WEATHER STATION NETWORK

Local weather & soil moisture

Get real-time weather and soil information.

Cropping

Slugs

Learn more about slugs to help you control this significant pest. 

Download the guide

Harvest

The GRDC Harvester Set-up Guide is a practical guide to help grain growers optimise harvest losses through harvester set-up.

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Grain storage

GRDC grow notes covers all aspects of grain storage including:

- Planning and purchasing

- Economics of on-farm storage

- Safety

- Pest prevention, identification and management

- Managing high moisture grain

Download now

Livestock

MLA Productivity and Profitability Series

Beef, sheep and goat producers can listen to a diverse range of expert speakers present webinars and podcasts to aid on-farm decision making. Plus, producers will find relevant resources and MLA programs to continue their learning journey.

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MLA Making more from sheep

Learn more about industry benchmarks, and performance.

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Weather & Climate

BOM - Rainfall forecast map

Map showing forecast rainfall for up to 8 days ahead. From here you can navigate to see recent rainfall, temperature forecasts, climate influences etc using the menu on the left of the screen. 

BOM rainfall forecast map

Summary of the climate outlook, filter by chance of above median, % probability of climate outcomes, chance of extremes, chance of min mm of rainfall and study past accuracy of forecasts. 

BOM climate outlook map

Agriculture Victoria soil moisture monitoring newsletter

The Rain and Grain Project, with the use of soil moisture monitoring (SMM) probes, provides real time soil water content data. They record soil water content at one source point from 30cm down to 1 metre as a reference point for a paddock.

Monitoring sites have been commissioned in cropping regions throughout Victoria by Agriculture Victoria.

View and subscribe

The Fast Break – Agriculture Victoria

The Fast Break details oceanic and atmospheric climate driver activity over the last month and summarises three month model predictions for the Pacific and Indian Oceans, rainfall and temperature for Victoria.

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Education & training

Growing soil carbon 101 course

This self-paced course, delivered by SoilCQuest, has a focus on how soil organic matter and soil carbon can increase soil quality and reduce agronomic issues in broadacre systems.

Riverine Plains members can access the course for free using the code: RPMEMBER

Lifetime Ewe Management

Lifetime Ewe Management is a nationally accredited course involving groups of five producers and six 'hands-on' sessions over 12 months. It's structured to maximise knowledge retention, skills development and practice change.

Each producer monitors a mob of their own ewes to demonstrate the effects of nutrition and management has in their environment.

Lifetime Ewe Management is coordinated by Rural Industry Skills Training (Victoria). RIST specialises in providing short course training opportunities to farmers. The course is facilitated by private and government specialists who have been trained in pasture and animal assessment and understand the sheep industry.

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Farm Business

The Farms of the Future Program

The Agtech Toolbox is an online resource containing a variety of Agtech and connectivity products, supplier information, case studies on Agtech adoption, educational opportunities, informative articles, job openings, and upcoming Agtech events. Farmers can utilise this platform to conduct research and access valuable resources related to agricultural technology and connectivity.

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Farming for profit: Focussing on the drivers and breaking down the barriers to profit

This report looks at current trends in business performance including income, costs and profit.

Key messages:

  • The driver to profitability is lifting return per ha for all enterprises
  • 5 years average cost of production has remained relatively flat
  • Top 25% of farm businesses spend between 20 and 50% more than the average. Much of the extra cost is found in fertiliser.
  • Business needs to have clear purpose and each stakeholder should be clear on individual roles and responsibilities
  • Understand capacity of land to accommodate different enterprise mixtures
  • The key to lifting profit is to determine what are the best return on investment decisions for your farm

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Farm Business Management

The need for improved farm business management skills has been identified as a crucial element for Australian farmers to maintain business sustainability, while taking up the opportunity currently occurring in Australian agriculture.

This farm business management manual is a significant investment by GRDC to assist farmers with their business skills. 

View the GRDC Farming the Business Manual

Discover the path to a thriving agricultural business

This immersive 6.5-day courses from Resource Consulting Services gives you the power to transform your farm and business management practices.

Master essential skills in finance and business, grass budgeting and grazing charts, unlock the secrets of healthy soil, and maximise every drop of rainfall. But this is more than just knowledge – it’s about a mindset shift that fuels success.

Learn more

Master essential skills with a business fundamentals workshop

This workshop from Resource Consulting Services is designed to revolutionise your administrative skills, bridging the crucial gap between fieldwork and office management. In this course, you’ll learn to understand essential financial documents, embrace efficient technology systems for administration, and gain expertise in data entry and record keeping. It will equip you with the knowledge to handle bookkeeping more proficiently.

This workshop is your key to a more efficient, profitable business with a focus on strategic thinking in the field while ensuring smooth office operations.

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Young Farmer Business Program

A range of videos, guides, checklists and templates tailored for young farmers and fishers.

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MLA Key profit drivers

Income and costs influence return on investment and determine profit. Income is determined by the quantity of product and the price received per unit of product. For example, the higher the price you get for your livestock, the greater the income - but not necessarily the profit.

Successful producers aim to improve product quality (red meat) and evaluate selling options to maximise the price received or to minimise price fluctuations.

However, benchmarking studies consistently show producers have a much greater chance of improving profitability by managing the quantity of product produced and controlling their cost structures.

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MLA Industry benchmarks

Primary farm business and beef industry benchmarks with questions answered, methodology and a guide to performance using publicly available references.

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Managing drought, fire and flood

Produced by NSW Government in December 2023. Contents include planning for extreme seasonal conditions, taking care of yourself and your business, looking after livestock, pastures, cropping, soils and managing natural assets.

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Weekly commodity report

A general overview of several key agricultural commodities.

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GRDC Farming the Business

Module 1: 

What do I need to know about business to manage my farm business successfully?

Module 2: 

Where is my farm business now and where do I want it to be?

Module 3: 

How do I take my business to the next level?

Download a copy here or get in contact if you would like a hardcopy.

Calculators & Tools

Ag Vic hay vs grain calculator

This tool calculates the gross margin of grain and hay production in dollars per hectare.

It assists with deciding whether a crop should be left for harvest or cut for hay.

Access the hay vs grain calculator

Feed cost calculator

Calculate and compare protein, energy and other components for different mixes of livestock feeds.

NSW DPI feed cost calculator

RCS FarmEye

RCS FarmEye is made up of two unique tools:

  1. ProfitProbe®: Analysis of production and business metrics for agricultural businesses using management accounting
  2. Farm Portrait: Collection and storage of ecological and well-being metrics to analyses trends over time, verify management decisions and report at the farm level. 
Learn more

MLA cost of production tool

The cost of production calculator is a tool kit to help you determine your CoP and compare performance annually.

MLA stocking rate calculator

The stocking rate calculator is designed to determine the number of cattle or sheep you should put into a paddock based on its carrying capacity.

You can find out more about pasture utilisation for cattle producers in the MLA More Beef from Pastures pasture utilisation module.

Access the stocking rate calculator

Yield Prophet Lite

Yield Prophet Lite is a free tool that lets you estimate potential yield values for your crop given different rainfall amounts and fertiliser application rates. It also gives the rainfall likelihood for the remainder of the growing season.

Access Yield Prophet Lite

Sheep calculators & tools

  • Grazfed
  • Lifetimeewe
  • NSW DPI drought & supplementary feed calculator
  • RationBuilder
  • Lambing Planner
  • and more!

Ag Vic Sheep tools & calculators

Ag Vic dry matter calculator

This tool calculates the yield of dry matter in tonnes per hectare.

This assists with the decision of when to cut and bale hay.

Access the dry matter calculator

Agricultural emissions calculator

This calculator aims to simplify emissions tracking and unlock valuable productivity insights for producers.

Access the agricultural emissions tracker.