Farmers Tony White, from Miling, and Peter Daw, from Ravensthorpe, participated in the Western Australia Drought Pilot program over a decade ago.

This initiative, spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), aimed to help farmers better prepare for and manage dry seasons.

In this episode, Tony and Peter share the strategies they have incorporated into their farm businesses since completing the program. They discuss how the program’s support, which included a $40,000 grant for capital improvements and an additional $20,000 for other expenditures, has made a lasting impact on their operations and preparedness against drought.

This episode is brought to you by the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub and is hosted by Shannon Beattie.

In this episode, we catch up with Dan Parnell, Regional Extension Officer at Western Dairy, and Borden farmer Paul O’Meehan to delve into the world of silage.

Silage isn't widely used in the wheatbelt, but Paul has been growing and utilising it near Borden for many years, and opened one pit after 5 years.

Dan, a consultant, delivers TopFodder workshops, which focus on producing high-quality silage and hay. Recently, he has been doing this work through a project funded by the Future Drought Fund titled "Better Making and Use of Hay and Silage - Mitigating drought and season variability effects for WA's livestock industry".

Through this project, the TopFodder program is used to upskill dairy, beef and sheep producers in WA on successfully making, storing and feeding silage. The project enables these producers to improve the quality of traditionally produced hay, which will further improve the quality feed for their stock in times of drought.

This episode is brought to you by the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub and is hosted by Shannon Beattie.

• TopFodder Workshops – contact Western Beef - Western Beef website: westernbeef.org.au Jeisane Accioly: 0403 327 216 or jeisane.alis@gmail.com Dan Parnell: dan.parnell@westerndairy.com.au
• Successful Silage (TopFodder) Manual - Dairy Australia
• Hub news - Drought Hub

In this episode, we talk with Brad Plunkett and Christophe D’Abbadie about profitable and drought-resilient grazing systems for the Southern Rangelands.

Brad and Christophe, both economists at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), have conducted extensive research on profitable and sustainable rangeland management systems in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Their work is particularly notable for its focus on strategies that allow pastoralists to manage consecutive drought years effectively.

This episode is brought to you by the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub and is hosted by Shannon Beattie.

• Modelling shows optimal beef system for Southern Rangelands - WA Government
• Southern Rangelands Revitalisation Program - DPIRD
• C. d'Abbadie, R. Kingwell, P. Vercoe, B. Plunkett, A. Peggs, Heavy steers and heifers run at low stocking rates enhance drought resilience in a pastoral region of Australia, Agricultural Systems, Volume 218, 2024
• Cunyu Station Visit: An example of profitable, sustainable pastoralism (PDF) - Rangelands WA
• Rangeland heavy steers and heifers run at low stocking rates provide resilience to drought (YouTube) - Christophe D’Abbadie
• Hub news - Drought Hub