A NARROW window of opportunity remained for grain growers in the southern cropping region to employ the online tool Yield Prophet, the Grains Research and Development Corporation has said.
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The tool is used to support farmers' decision-making around this year's cropping programs and inputs.
The corporation said that Yield Prophet was an innovative, world-recognised system for monitoring and simulating crop paddocks.
It was founded through an invitation from Birchip Cropping Group to the CSIRO to simulate cropping systems and launched thanks to significant funding from the corporation in 2004.
Its aim was to reduce farmer uncertainty about the crop management environment and to enable growers to assess the possible effects of alternative management practices.
Today, the system is operated as a web interface by Birchip, generating crop simulations and reports to assist hundreds of growers in decision making.
Birchip Yield Prophet co-ordinator Tim McClelland said that Yield Prophet should be used in the months leading up to sowing.
It was useful for growers in and out of season, but to gain maximum value, growers should take a soil sample at the start of the year, Mr McClelland said.
