Market research for future development of the RPGOT

Summary

ABARES conducted a series of workshops with livestock producers to provide information that may assist in the re-development of the Rainfall to Pasture Growth Outlook Tool (RPGOT). The RPGOT is a decision support tool that delivers online access to current and forecast pasture growth information for more than 3300 locations across southern Australia. The information gathered for this report was provided by producers as well as public sector and private advisors and consultants, representing a variety of livestock industry sectors across four climatic zones.
The general consensus emerging from the workshops was that a freely available support tool that provides pasture growth information through a simple and intuitive platform would be a useful addition to existing sources of information that are available to support decision making in the livestock production sector. A list of improvements and additions to the current tool and their technical and financial feasibility is provided in this report.