New Free CliMate App for Farmers
From the National Landcare Facilitator Newsletter, March 2013
Australian CliMate is a free iTunes app that can help farmers with better decisions about their farming operations based on recent weather and likely climate probabilities. Farmers can quickly interrogate the last 60 years of daily rainfall, temperature and radiation data for their location. Seasonal forecasts are provided based on current ENSO conditions.
The app also calculates heat sums and estimates soil water and soil nitrate accumulation. CliMate has been developed to help farmers make sense of past climate statistics and forecasts for their own location, to better manage their business.
Project Leader Dr David Freebairn, Principal Environmental Scientist with RPS, says that the app was accepted on first submission to iTunes and is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. A web version will be available in March 2013. The question-based logic in CliMate is designed to suit anyone who uses probabilities of weather events in their decision making, whether they be a grain grower, a grazier or a grape grower.
Peter Holding, a Climate Champion farmer in south-east New South Wales, with winter crops and wool lambs, is already a fan of CliMate.“I find it very good for clarifying my vision of what I think is happening,” he says. “As I get closer to sowing I will definitely be running the how wet /nitrogen section to see if my estimates compare with the app and maybe refine my final decisions. “The ability to try different scenarios very quickly and simply is a great way of improving my decision-making and my understanding of the climate in our area.”
Mathew Pitt, a Climate Champion farmer with mixed enterprises from Tasmania, says: “For me, it simplifies the ability to do ‘what-if scenarios’ when assessing options. “It also has the ability to give you a look behind in the current season for things other than rainfall. Temperature variation is becoming crucial when deciding what crops to plant.”
To download the CliMate app go to the Apple App Store and search for ‘Australian CliMate’. For more information contact
Dr David Freebairn Phone: 07 3237 8820 or Email: david.freebairn@rpsgroup.com.au
