It’s great to see above average winter rainfall across much of the state, providing favourable conditions and making a welcome change from the drought conditions experienced by many over the past few years.
This month has seen the Hub team work with partners to collect and collate our next milestone report. On behalf of the Hub management team, a sincere thanks to our partners for the timely submissions of their reports and the quality of their work. We look forward to sharing these project results over the coming months. In the meantime, we have been updating the Hub and Cross Hub Projects webpages, so please browse for an update on our supported projects and resources.
In great news for South Australia, we were pleased that three Hub linked projects received support through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund Scaling Success Program. These projects build on demonstrated approaches to help producers and communities better prepare for future droughts. The three projects supported include expanding de-risked seeding strategies, supporting adoption of drought-resilient pasture systems, and taking the successful Kick Off Ya Boots initiative to more regional communities. Read our media release here.
The Hub has had strong engagement at the recent AgEx Forum and LambEx26. This provided an important opportunity to connect directly with producers, advisers, researchers and industry organisations, and ensured the Hub’s work remains visible and connected to industry. We also shared practical drought resilience research and resources, which you can find on our website here.
The Hub has established projects in several key wine regions in South Australia spanning areas including soil health, irrigation management and precision viticulture. In addition, the projects are supporting wine grape growers to optimise vineyard management in response to increasing climate variability and water scarcity. Read more about the Barossa project here, and the Limestone Coast project here.
In the coming months there will be a range of opportunities for livestock producers and consultants. More Beef from Pastures 2.0 is now recruiting dedicated beef producer learning groups, we encourage you to apply here. Dr Penny Schulz is also planning an Enhanced Livestock Management Advisor intensive training program. This will be launched in the coming weeks via our socials, or feel free reach out to Penny here.
We hope you find our August issue of interest,
Dr Stephen Lee
Director, SA Drought Hub
