A new online tool to help NSW farmers better prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters including fire, flood, and drought has been unveiled by the NSW and Federal Governments.
Minister for Agriculture, Regional NSW and Western NSW, Tara Moriarty said the tool, called myStockPlanner, will help farmers safeguard their livelihoods during the climatic variations impacting their farming operations with real-time insights, scenario planning, and recovery tracking.
“myStockPlanner is more than just a planning tool for livestock producers — it’s a strategic partner for navigating the impacts from droughts, floods and fires,” said the Minister.
The platform enables farmers to provide details of their farm, risks and resources so they can access tailored actionable response options to consider and implement with their feed and livestock. It enhances and brings together functions that previously existed such as the Drought and Supplementary Calculator, DroughtPack, Feed Cost Calculator and Drought Feed Calculator, into an upgraded, smarter and single platform.
“This online platform is a significant step forward in enabling producers to plan their own feeding and recovery strategies and give farmers more confidence in their business decisions when they need it most,” said Ms Moriarty.
“This tool will be essential for not only planning business as usual operations but also in farm business recovery following significant events.
“Importantly this makes it easier and more convenient for farmers because it brings together the capabilities of multiple existing tools available over the last decade into a single, streamlined web-based application.”
Importantly, myStockPlanner allows users to save their business information to a farm profile, which they can access and update anywhere, anytime even if their business records are destroyed in floods or fires.
Farmers use the free platform to calculate livestock requirements, develop feed plans and evaluate projected annual costs of livestock sale and retention options to improve the farm’s performance.
The platform is accessed through a web browser using an existing Service NSW login. This ensures improved accessibility and reliability across laptops and mobiles such as iOS and Android devices.
The Service NSW gateway also protects user data and allows quick recall and editing as conditions and operating needs change.
Future updates of the platform will aim to include the NSW Combined Drought Indicator and innovative technologies to assist in recovery planning by scenario planning length of feeding periods and livestock performance modelling.
The development of the myStockPlanner platform was jointly funded by the Australian and NSW governments.
“The Australian Government is proud to back practical initiatives like myStockPlanner that build real resilience on the ground and help keep our farmers and regional communities thriving into the future,” said Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Kristy McBain.
To learn more or sign up – myStockPlanner – https://mystockplanner.dpi.nsw.gov.au.
