Avon Region, Western Australia

Project contact: Linda Leonard, phone (08) 9690 2191, email lleonard@agric.wa.gov.au

Many Avon region farmers have moved away from livestock to concentrate on cropping, mainly due to past poor returns from animal enterprises, a desire not to be on-farm managing animals every day of the year and the difficulty of finding labour.

Farmers are continually seeking ways to improve and streamline their operations so that they and their families can enjoy a reasonable lifestyle. To do this, farmers need to understand the technologies available to assess crop and livestock production. They must also have systems in place to manage large volumes of information to enable sound decision-making and long-term sustainability.

This project will involve more than 20 individual case studies where leading producers will use time management diaries to identify where and how their time is being spent. This baseline information will help farmers to detect where the most gains can be made.

The project is supported by the Department of Agriculture & Food, Western Australia, Farming Systems and Modeling Group, 2050 Groups (Highbury and Cuballing), Wandering Farm Improvement Group, Freebairn Group (Kulin), Nightline Computers, Curtin University, and Sheep Meat Research and Development.