Dr Rodrigo Pires1, Dr Anna Hepworth1, Rebecca O’leary1, Jonathan Carrol2, James Goldie3, Dean Marchiori4, Paul Melloy5, Mark Padgam6, Hugh Parsonage7, Prof Adam Sparks1,8,9
1Farming Systems Innovation, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development of Western Australia, 2No affiliation, 3360info, Monash University, 4Centre for Crop Health, University of Southern Queensland, 5The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, 6rOpenSci, 7Grattan Institute, 8Wave Data Labs, 9Curtin University, Centre for Crop and Disease Management, Curtin Biometry and Agricultural Data Analytics
Biography:
Rodrigo Pires has more than 10 years of experience in agricultural and environmental research. Rodrigo’s experience spans plant responses to biotic/abiotic stress (e.g. drought, heat, nutrients, pathogens/disease), crop protection and disease management, simulation modelling and design of decision-making support tools.
Abstract:
Climate variability poses significant challenges to the agricultural sector globally. The ability to find, source and interrogate weather data offers the potential to optimise resources improving crop management practices and support the agricultural industry to drive sustainable outcomes. For example, weather data underlies the planning and operationalisation of a range of farm practices (e.g., sowing opportunities, herbicide/fungicide applications, soil amelioration practices, harvest, etc) and thus is central to data-driven decision-making in the agricultural industry. Here we introduce a tool to facilitate access and retrieval of Australian climate data called weatherOz. weatherOz was developed as an R package to facilitate repeated and programmatic access and download of Australian climate datasets. The weatherOz tool consists of a unified interface providing standardised data access and retrieval from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), and the Scientific Information for Land Owners (SILO). In this talk, I will cover an overview of the package’s development, its functionality, and showcase practical applications of the data in agricultural research. We will also highlight the main differences between the DPIRD, SILO and BoM data sources, and how these datasets can be leveraged to support agronomic planning and decision-making. This session promises insights into the value of climate data in agriculture, highlighting the weatherOz package as a useful tool for researchers, agronomists, and stakeholders in the agricultural industry.