With 98 percent of NSW still drought declared, a producer webinar being held tomorrow will explore the topic ‘feed or sell’ over the next six-month cycle.

Coordinated through NSW DPI, the webinar will be held from 10am, NSW time* on Thursday 18 October.

Presenters include Dr Anthony Clark, who will deliver his take on the possible weather outcomes over the coming months, including the likelihood, or otherwise, of drought breaking rains.

Dr Clark is an agricultural climatologist who has worked nationally and internationally in a range of weather forecasting services, including quantifying the impacts of climate change on different Ag sectors. He has a strong understanding of weather drivers and leads a team that is developing decision support tools to allow producers to respond to both short term and long term weather impacts, including the Enhanced Drought Information System,  which monitors state wide seasonal conditions.

Dr Clark will be followed during tomorrow’s webinar by Geoff Casburn, Sheep Development Officer with NSWDPI, Wagga Wagga, who will work through the complex but pivotal ‘feed vs sell’ decisions based on the drought continuing for different lengths of time.

Mr Casburn has a well-developed knowledge of integrated livestock and cropping systems, having worked for NSW DPI for more than 20 years in Goulburn, Bourke and Wagga Wagga. He has a keen interest in livestock production from pastures combined with practical experience in drought feeding systems and lamb lotfeeeding. He produces the NSWDPI gross margins for a range of sheep enterprises.

Producers can register to join tomorrow’s webinar, through this registration link.

• Note that registrants for the webinar who are interstate (i.e. outside NSW) may receive an incorrect starting time in their registration acknowledgement email. The problem is linked to a technical detail with the  webinar software, since the start of daylight saving. The correct starting time is 10am NSW time.