After 50 years’ working in the field of weather and climate, Professor Roger Stone knows a thing or two about forecasting and seasonal conditions. And, through his business, Speedbird Weather and Climate, he is teaching farmers how to do their own forecasting, not just in Australia, but overseas as well. A meteorologist and climatologist, Dr Stone said the specialist consultancy side of his business involved working with farming groups and collectives, and hundreds of workshops in the bush.
“We specialise in getting farmers to do their own forecasting, producers across the state whether they’re in Boulia or Biloela,” he said. “It takes a lot of the mystery out of this (job of forecasting) . .. people are making million dollar decisions and you can’t just rely on a black box or a forecaster who pops up on a TV somewhere or whatever source (for the weather).” Dr Stone said it was too important just to have a general forecast for farmers.
“People need to understand and actually do some of their own forecasting and that breaks down the barriers on how all this works, whether it’s two weeks ahead or six months ahead,” he said. “So it depends on the (f) management decisions, different groups have different management decisions. It has to be very much tailored or specialised, this type of work.” Dr Stone said he had been approached by farmer groups and government agencies to develop specialist forecasts. These could be done anywhere in the world.