PASTURE Paramedic is a program taking graziers back to the future.
Without any digital interference, Pasture Paramedic equips producers to go into any paddock and make a rapid assessment of pasture condition in the medium to high-rainfall areas of Australia’s southern agricultural zone.
The program has been developed by Cam Nicholson, of Nicon Rural Services, and Lisa Miller and Jess Brogden, of Southern Farming Systems, on behalf of Meat & Livestock Australia.
Speaking to North West Farmer during the Future Genetics conference in Adelaide, Mr Nicholson said the system was based around an easy-to-follow manual and the simplest of tools – a foldout one-square-metre gauge with which to provide an immediate assessment of the state of a paddock, or as many paddocks as anyone cares to check.
Mr Nicholson said the key to the programs – there is a manual for each geographic-climatic zone in the southern agricultural area – was to recognise the potential of pasture, motivate farmers to maximise that potential and suggest a direction for future management.
He said Pasture Paramedic gives a weed-by-weed and grass-by-grass playbook, how to measure them all, by assessment and by making decisions.
“Firstly, decision-making is a skill – although we weren’t taught it like reading and writing, it is nonetheless an ability which can be improved,” he said.
“Secondly, you can improve your decision-making through practice, learning and adapting over time.
“It is important to recognise there are two types of decisions – a ‘good’ decision and the ‘right’ decision. The terms aren’t interchangeable.
“Good decisions are based on information – obtaining facts, figures, projections and the like. They include an appreciation of the risk or odds of something happening.
“The right decision can only be gauged after the event – the old saying ‘everything is easy in hindsight’ applies here.
“A good decision will not always lead to the right decision, particularly in agriculture, where there are so many externalities such as weather, markets, politics and policies that producers have little control over, but can influence an outcome.
“However, making a good decision will undoubtedly go a long way to making the right decision,” he said.
Pasture Paramedic equips graziers with everything they need to make some serious decisions.
