Loving long-term forecasts
Location: Toowoomba, QLD View Map
Enterprise: Trading cattle
Producer: Sid Plant
Sid Plant's love affair with the weather has helped him stay on top of the market with his cattle operation – following the season to dictate what markets he will target.
He uses his understanding of climate and seasonal forecasting to access feed availability for stock and meet his stringent requirements for pasture and property performance to achieve turn-off goals.
Sid also uses climatic forecasting as part of his toolkit for making decisions on when to buy and sell cattle to keep ahead of weather-influenced market fluctuations.
Sid says the key is to tap into the knowledge around weather, make sense of it, then use it as an aid to decision making. Sid refers to the Southern Oscillation Index daily as a key tool in his management decisions, monitoring climatic fluctuations to determine the need to buy in supplementary feed and buy or offload stock.
He believes that he stands a better chance of making an intuitive decision based on forecast weather patterns if he uses a forecast together with his own insight and research.
Sid feels the key to look at long-term seasonal forecasts and use the probabilities offered within them to assist in decision making.
Toowoomba, QLD
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