Supporting climate resilience through weather stations

WHY THIS PROJECT WAS IMPORTANT

Having access to real-time weather information is important for farmers in managing their day-to-day farming operations. 

Riverine Plains manages an extensive network of on-farm weather stations across northeast Victoria and southern NSW, which provides live local weather data to farmers, including rainfall, wind speed, wind direction and temperature. The information from these stations, and those managed by other farming system groups, supports farmers located a long way from official Bureau of Meteorology weather station sites.

This project investigated how an integrated network of 80 on-farm weather stations across central and southern NSW and northern Victoria, could better support the community, emergency services and members of the farming community in bushfire and flood management. 

In short: This project investigated the delivery of a standardised platform to provide localised climate data, enhancing disaster planning for communities and emergency services.

Currently, emergency services are reliant on Bureau of Meteorology Weather Stations which can be located up to 200km apart and do not provide local climate information when fires start. On-farm weather stations have the potential to fill in gaps where there is no alternative weather information.

Project focus

The Robust Weather Stations project investigated the feasibility of bringing together five weather station and moisture probe networks (managed by the farming systems groups involved in the project), across southern Australia into a single, standardised platform. 

This helped inform key stakeholders on a series of localised climatic information to assist with disaster planning, such as for fires and floods. 

Climate change will cause higher average temperatures, more rapid drying of fuels and lower humidity, and increase the risk and frequency of bushfires and damage to property, livestock, infrastructure and native flora and fauna. A more robust weather station network can help farmers and communities manage the risk of fire in the region. A warmer climate is also increasing the risk of heavy rainfall events; the on-farm network of weather stations and soil moisture probes measure soil moisture, which can also help predict and measure the severity of flooding across the different regions.

A standardised platform is anticipated to provide more robust data (temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, soil moisture data information etc) and provide an opportunity for farmers, emergency services, and local, state and federal governments to better plan and prepare for disasters and climate change in Central and southern New South Wales and Victoria.

This project built on a network of data that is available to landholders but not currently being utilised to service the wider community, including emergency services, to help manage climatic events such as fire and flood.

The project also aimed to link government and private industry to help overcome some of the existing barriers to sharing climate data with a wider audience, creating better outcomes for emergency management.

Project activities included an audit of the weather stations, data validation, implementing data sharing agreements, standardising platforms and a feasibility study.

Project outcomes

Preparing Australia weather stations project update

Riverine Plains collaborated with Holbrook Landcare Network, Birchip Cropping Group, Farmlink and Central West Farming Systems, with help from Agriculture Victoria and NSW Department of Primary Industries, to determine the feasibility of bringing several weather station networks into a single network.

The aim was to provide valuable information for both farmers and emergency response agencies.

As part of the project, an audit of weather stations within each farming system network was completed. This showed a range of different software and hardware is being used in weather stations and moisture probes and that the infrastructure is from one to ten years old. Some weather stations were not working, mainly due to lack of maintenance. Farmers considering installing a weather station on their farm should consider that the ongoing maintenance cost can be high. Key reasons for maintenance include livestock chewing cables, battery failure and sensor failure which can be expensive to replace. If livestock are present in the weather station paddock, farmers should ensure the station is securely fenced.

Validation of data from the weather stations commenced in December 2022 using the Bureau of Meterology (BoM) ObsCheck program. The ObsCheck program benchmarks farmers’ weather stations against an objective benchmark, to help measure the quality of the data. This has been quite an involved process, requiring high levels of IT expertise to solve problems with data integration between five different providers and the BoM.

Thanks to IK Caldwell and Pairtree, who each provided expertise for this process. 

A robust weather station network requires host farmers to have a clear understanding of how their data will be used. As such, one of the project activities was to provide a standard data sharing agreement that will be discussed and road-tested with each farming system group.

Business case

A business case was prepared as part of this project. Key points were that:

• Privately owned, on-farm weather stations provide real-time data that informs and supports decision-making by farmers
• A connected, robust regional network of on-farm weather stations has the potential to support decision-making for a wider range of farmers and emergency services
•  Having access to real-time climate and soil moisture data through on-farm weather stations can provide a range of private benefits to farmers
• On-farm weather stations can help inform crop choice at sowing, helping to prevent crop failure in high-risk crops and improve returns from grain marketing; these benefits can increase profit by between $36/ha to $655/ha, with the largest benefit occurring when crop failure in canola is prevented
•  Public benefits from a weather station network include the prevention of dust storms, achieved by maintaining ground cover, which has an estimated public
  benefit of $300 million per year
• Further work is required to determine the return on investment for how connecting on-farm weather stations through Robust Weather Station Network will increase the sustainability and profitability of grain growers.

Read the full report, published in Research for the Riverine Plains, 2024

Getting the most out of your farm data

Riverine Plains hosted a webinar ‘Getting the most from your farm data’ on Tuesday 13 June. During the webinar, James Russell and Adam Davis shared insights on their use of farm data to monitor and improve farm business management. The importance of collecting good-quality data and having a clear purpose or plan for the data being collected on-farm was highlighted.

Adam Davis uses farm data to increase efficiency on-farm, but stressed that data strategies are specific to each farm – so that what suits your neighbour may not suit you. Adam employs a variable rate fertiliser strategy for lime, gypsum, nitrogen and phosphorus and uses NDVI imagery, yield and soil mapping data to ensure optimal rates are applied in each paddock. Deep soil nitrogen (DSN) testing and electromagnetic (EM) mapping are also important data sources to drive decisions, particularly in relation to nitrogen application in his lucerne-based pastures.

James Russell agreed that data collection is key to enhancing farm management. He stressed the usefulness of soil-testing and using precise GPS coordinates to ensure tests are taken from the same place each year. James also uses soil testing data to drive management decisions, such as for liming and macronutrient or micronutrient applications. He also uses elevation mapping programs to develop strategic drainage maps. This has been extremely useful during recent wet years on his mostly flat and heavy soils. James also highly recommended using on-farm trials, as the data produced from trial yield maps, NDVI images and cost–benefit ratios are all specific to a particular farm, paddock and crop.

Working out which app to use for a specific farm data purpose can be tricky. Adam suggested farmers identify the key things they want to gain from an app and then test it for a fortnight before committing. Adam also advised against limiting app searches to just those that have ‘agriculture’ in the name. The data and tech space is vast and there are plenty of products used in other industries that can be useful. Farmers can also reach out to an app’s support services to learn how to get the most from their experience.

As farm equipment and technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, more farm data is being collected by machinery companies and sold to third parties, often without farmers’ knowledge.

Professor Leanne Wiseman, from Griffith University, explained the concept of ‘data portability’ as it relates to farmers being able to access their farm data from machinery companies, consultants and other third parties whenever they require it. Professor Wiseman strongly recommended farmers have early conversations with any consultant, advisor, agronomist or equipment dealer they are considering sharing their data with. This will help clarify who will have access to the data and help ensure data will always be accessible by the farmer. Best data practice is where machinery dealers and consultants have an open dialogue with farmers about any data-sharing terms and conditions before contracting. When it comes to data-sharing contracts, transparency between parties is extremely important to understand exactly how data will be used.

 Thank you to presenters James Russell, Adam Davis and Professor Leanne Wiseman.