Climate change is a hot topic with average temperatures already on the rise, and forecasts for warmer winters and more extreme weather events as heat waves, droughts, floods and destructive downpours.
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The Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority (CMA) is organising a series of workshops across the district under the name 'Weather, it matters’.
Participants will be broken up into groups and work on landscape themes such as soils, water, biodiversity and communities, to determine what drives the health of these and what needs to be done to manage them into the future to ensure they stay healthy or become more healthy.
With organising the workshops the CMA aims to find out what landholders are already doing to adapt, and what concerns they have about the impact of an increasingly erratic climate on their farms, businesses and lifestyle.
"We'd like feedback from farmers on their priorities for agriculture and the environment, so we can integrate that information into the local catchment action plan," Border Rivers-Gwydir CMA’s Wendy Miller said.
"One of the questions we want to ask is whether the climate change debate even matters when it comes to implementing best practice farm management.
"We want to talk to farmers about the benefits of things like increasing ground cover and soil carbon, improving pasture management, and providing more shade and shelter for stock, and whether best practice farm management will increase profitability on farm regardless of what happens with the weather?"
The evenings will also host guest speakers; climate change experts and local landholders who have already made changes to the way they manage their farming operations.
Bill Yates grows sheep, cattle and crops and will share his experience as guest speaker at the Ashford workshop.
"We've watched the way the temperatures are warming up earlier in the winter, shortening the window for successful crops," Mr Yates said.
"The cause of climate change is irrelevant. It's happening and we need to adapt to stay in business.
"We now sow earlier and we use quicker growing varieties because the yield penalty for late sowings is increasing."
"We put a lot of effort into preserving moisture in the soil before planting, and we closely monitor weather forecasting models, particularly if we're considering dry sowing. The models are getting more accurate and there's a lot of publicly available information online to help with planning."
"We've also had to think about our pasture management for livestock. With shorter winters, followed by warm, dry spring weather, that's going to affect the way your pasture species respond."
A complementary diner will be served during all 'Weather, it Matters' workshops. The evenings are from 6-8.30pm at:
GLEN INNES:
Tuesday November 12 - Glen Innes Railway Hotel
TENTERFIELD: Tuesday November 19 - Tenterfield Bowling Club
ASHFORD:
Wednesday November 20 - Ashford Commercial Hotel
INVERELL:
Thursday November 21 – Royal Hotel
RSVP to Wendy Miller on 02 6728 8039 or Vicky Wong on 02 6728 8036.
