Capitalising on the ‘good seasons’ takes careful planning, adaptive management, and risk management. Be ready to capitalise on good seasons to buffer against the poor seasons.
By experiencing good and dry times pastoral managers develop an understanding as to how many animals they can comfortably carry on their property. When they have this figure in mind they can:
- develop a plan to utilise the extra feed which grows during good seasons
- set key dates and trigger points for making decisions
- actively monitor total grazing pressure and feed supply
- state the risks and analyse risk before making any decisions.
It is important to utilise all available sources of information for devising strategies and improving the number of available options. The Develop a property plan tool has more information about establishing and monitoring trigger points.