RiskWi$e 2024 Spring edition

Reports from the June face-to-face meeting

Now that we've had some time to reflect from the June face-to face meeting, and the new themes are up and running, it may be the perfect time to review the annual reports submitted for the meeting.  You can find the reports at: RiskWi$e Annual Progress reports, 2024 ^{_{* only accessible to RiskWi$e project members with Teams access.}}

It's great to see the progress that has been made in the first full year of RiskWi$e around the different regions, and we look forward to hearing the progress of the 2024/25 season, including how the new themes are progressing.

RiskWi$e website

The RiskWi$e website is up and running with new content being added regularly.  If there's anything you'd like to see on the page, or you have any feedback, please contact the National Project Lead (NPL) team at: riskwise@csiro.au

You can view the website at: RiskWi$e - RiskWi$e (csiro.au)

N trials map

Farm decision making

GRDC July updates

If you missed the GRDC updates a couple months back, they are available to watch from the below links:

N banking - role in the northern region and probable risk/reward

Topics:

• RiskWi$e – why this approach, what we want to achieve and why the startup focus on N. (Rick Llewellyn, CSIRO)
• N banking - where does it sit to balance risk and reward. (James Hunt, University of Melbourne)
• The rate of N applied in any one crop is always wrong – can we be less wrong and how simulation modelling helps with risk-reward trade-offs (Lindsay Bell, CSIRO).

How does attitude to risk influence farm decision making?

Topics:

• Cultivating confidence in farming decision making by understanding and addressing risk. Rick Llewellyn (CSIRO)
• Mental traps, biases and shortcuts that can affect our decision making under risk. David Pannell (UWA)
• How do you make decisions with risk? The power of reflection and processes to aid your intuition and decision making. Barry Mudge (LJ Mudge & Sons)

Pannell Discussions

Pannell Discussions are brief articles on issues and ideas in economics, science, the environment, natural resource management, politics, agriculture and a whole lot more. All Pannell discussions can be found at: www.pannelldiscussions.net

David Pannell is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia. Prof. Pannell is one of Australia’s eminent agricultural economists and a leading thinker on agricultural and environmental policy. His research includes the economics of land, water and nature conservation; environmental policy; farmer adoption of new practices; risk; and economics of farming systems.

He has drawn on his long experience and research exploring ‘risk in agriculture’ to produce 17 discussion articles on risk in agriculture, how it might be mitigated, how it can be researched and how it influences farmer behaviour.

You can find the RiskWi$e related Pannell discussions at: Pannell Discussions - RiskWi$e (csiro.au)

GRDC Relationship Manager

Welcome to Courtney Ramsey, who is the new GRDC Relationship Manager for RiskWi$e.

Courtney has been part of the GRDC technical committee of RiskWi$e since the project kicked off, and you may have seen her around, especially if you attended the first annual meeting, or at the various GRDC events.  She's really looking forward to working closely with everyone.

Thanks to Graeme Sandral for his support as Relationship Manager over the last couple of years, we wish him well with his new endeavours starting his own RD&E consultancy.

Courtney brings a wealth of knowledge to the project and we're excited to have her onboard as the new Relationship Manager. Please feel free to reach out and say hello when you get a chance.  We look forward to working with Courtney.

Action Research Groups (ARG)

• Western ARG
  Led by: Grower Group Alliance
  Key Contact: Daniel Kidd
• SA - Eyre Peninsula ARG
  Led by: Ag Innovation & Research 
  Key contact: Naomi Scholz
• SA - Central ARG
  Led by: Hart Field Site Group
  Key contact: Rebekah Allen
• Victoria and Eastern SA ARG
  Led by: Birchip Cropping Group 
  Key contact: Yolanda Plowman
• New South Wales ARG
  Led by: Charles Sturt University
  Key contact: Mary Goodacre
• Queensland ARG
  Led by: Queensland Government - Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
  Key contact: Jayne Gentry

National Project Lead (NPL)

Project Leads: Rick Llewellyn and Lindsay Bell, CSIRO

Research Project Manager: Shelly Nicholls, CSIRO

For a list of all project partners, please see: Partners & Contacts - RiskWi$e (csiro.au)

2025 RiskWi$e annual forum

Set the date aside in your calendars, the 2025 Annual RiskWi$e forum is being planned for the 24 - 25 June, 2025 at Toowoomba. 

Venue: Burke and Wills Hotel
554 Ruthven St, Toowoomba, Qld

ICAN will provide further details (accommodation booking link, etc) as we get closer to the date.

There's likely to be a field trip to trail sites the day prior or following the meeting.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Quarterly progress meeting

The next quarterly progress meeting is set for Tuesday 19 November, 11am ACDT (Adelaide time).

If there are any topics that you'd like to be discussed, or you have an interesting story, progress or findings to share, please contact the NPL - RiskWise@csiro.au. If we're unable to share it in this forum, it'll be great to have stories, photos and ideas to share for future newsletters.

Upcoming Reading Club

Our next RiskWi$e reading club will be held on Friday 06 December.  

We're looking forward to hearing from Paul Deane from the University of Melbourne.

Paul is an agricultural economist who has worked in finance and the public sector who is now a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne. He has recently completed research analysing and understanding contemporary production, climate, price and financial risks in Australian grain growing farm businesses. Australian farmers face multiple risks from climate and reliance on world markets. Paul’s study includes the evaluating differences in production risk, statistical analysis of price risk across port zones, and a case study analysis of a farming business’ performance under future risk scenarios and strategies.

More details including the paper for discussion, and calendar invite will be shared with the RiskWi$e team shortly.

RiskWi$e  

RiskWi$e (the National Risk Management Initiative), is a 5-year national initiative with approximately $30 million funding from GRDC that will run from 2023 - 28. It seeks to understand and improve the risk-reward outcomes for grain growers by supporting on-farm decision-making.