The Lockyer Valley and Darling Downs are on the frontline of a pilot program from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) to improve weather forecasts for agricultural producers.
Minister for Agricultural Industry Development, Mark Furner said more accurate weather forecasts and localised weather observations would help producers manage the effects of the weather and climate change on their businesses.
“Access to better local weather data will support improved management decisions on crop production, labour and the supply chain,” Mr Furner said.
“Agribusiness is a weather-dependent business,” he said.
“Access to highly localised weather observations and forecasts will give agribusiness improved insights to the local weather.”
Mr Furner said DAF was working with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and Telstra to undertake the first phase of the project.
He said DAF’s project would deliver commercial-grade weather stations on Telstra sites which would be linked with BoM’s high-quality weather observation network and modelling capabilities.
“Telstra will install around 45 robust high-quality Internet of Things (IoT) enabled weather stations on Telstra sites and around 10 weather stations on farms and DAF research facilities in the Lockyer Valley, Esk, Gatton, Toowoomba, Cecil Plains, and Darling Downs areas,” he said.
Mr Furner said the data collection and trial phase was expected to run until late this year, with data to be made freely available to growers and users during the trial period.
