DR. SAT updated to help more Victorian farmers

The Future Drought Fund’s Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool (DR.SAT) has been updated with new functionality after consultation across 8 agricultural regions, including Victoria.

Improvements to the free tool include more commodities and regions.

DR.SAT’s updated features
• Land surface temperature now included in Bird’s Eye View
• Soil moisture projections
• Re-take resilience assessments and compare previous results
• Climate impacts and Bird’s Eye View graphs now part of resilience assessments

New regions and commodities (Environmental averages expanded to cover):
• Dryland cropping (oil seeds) in Victorian Mallee/Wimmera and Western Australia wheatbelt
• Temperate fruits in Southern Victoria/Northern Tasmania
• Citrus in Riverina/Goulburn/Riverlands–Murray
• Expanded Dairy across Southern Australia

DR.SAT gives farmers a clearer picture of the climate trends likely to impact their businesses, and their resilience to them—now, and in the future.

It does this by bringing together satellite data, climate projections and resources to help farmers better prepare for future climate shocks.

DR.SAT asks users a set of questions about their land management practices, financial management and personal and social context—that’s the assessment part.

Responding to these questions gives users the ability to see the areas where they’re doing well, and where they could improve, along with options to help increase their resilience. The data is stored under strict privacy conditions.
DR.SAT was developed with farmers and taps into expert advice from the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and other trusted advisors.

Since its first release in December 2021, DR.SAT has evolved from a focus on cattle grazing and dry land cropping to include commodities such as sheep, wool, dairy, citrus and temperate fruits.
This will expand further to incorporate horticultural commodities such as roots, tubers and leafy green vegetables in the final November 2022 update.

Assess your farm’s resilience at: drsat.com.au

Register now to take part in focus groups and improve the tool for more farmers: help@drsat.com.au