Australia's crop growing industry can take advantage of the weather and other climate conditions with the new online tool from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

The GRDC- funded online decision support tool - CropMate - is helping grain growers make sense of weather and climate information.

The website, www.cropmate.agriculture.nsw.gov.au, was developed by NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) and the University of New England (UNE) and aims to bring useful climate data to the fingertips of eastern states growers.

The interactive site is aimed at growers and advisers and collates climate, weather, soil, crop and economic data for particular localities.

Professor David Herridge from the UNE-NSW DPI Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC) told growers and advisers at the GRDC Update at Dubbo, NSW recently that CropMate is designed to provide timely and accurate information to help make informed planning and management decisions during the crop management cycle.

"CropMate information is divided into five sections following the cropping calendar and is specific to the user's location, paddock status and the crop being managed," Professor Herridge said.

CropMate uses data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence (QCCCE).

Professor Herridge said user input was welcome as the website had the capacity to change and grow.

"A choice of locations with reliable historic meteorological data provides location-specific information that is relevant to different phases of the cropping calendar," he said.

Users can consult the site when doing preseason planning to analyse data on average temperature, rainfall and evaporation, seasonal forecasts and influences on climate such as the impact of SOI on rainfall.

"The decision tools provide estimates of soil-water and nitrogen, frost and heat risk as well as gross margin analyses of the various cropping options," Dr Herridge said.

"Sowing pages contain recent rainfall and temperature analyses, climate forecasts and synoptic charts as well as a decision tool to help decide which variety to plant."

He says later in the season growers and consultants could use CropMate's spraying pages to assess current rainfall, wind, temperature and Delta-T conditions. It also contains an important decision tool, RustMan, to predict when rust will occur.

Under the Tracking the Season pages, users are presented with observations for the month, comparisons of accumulated rainfall, decision tool for nitrogen topdressing, a calculator to compare the outcome when salvaging crops for hay, silage or grazing and a top dressing decision tool.

"The CropMate tool is an example of how innovative research can be used to support grain grower decision making by incorporating research data, particularly around fertiliser use, variety performance, water use efficiency and sowing time, agronomic knowledge and climate information into the decision support tool," Professor Herridge said.

"With the current uncertainty about future climate, decision support tools that assist the grower in making decisions that include climate and agronomy in the same process will improve their approaches to risk management."