Kristen Clark Wins Nuffield Scholarship to Study AI and Drought Resilience
Clark manages Glenbank Farm in the Southern Riverina and will use the scholarship to examine technologies designed for commercial dairy businesses. Her programme will assess artificial intelligence, predictive data modelling and digital-twin simulations as tools for making farm decisions based on measured information.
The research will focus on challenges faced by pasture- and irrigation-dependent producers during severe dry conditions. It will consider how digital systems can help operators assess water use, fodder inventories and herd nutrition while handling information on milk output, cow metabolic health, soil moisture, irrigation costs and feed prices.
Clark will also investigate machine-learning applications that combine separate farm datasets into management forecasts. Digital models can be used to test feed budgets and water requirements under different weather conditions. The research will examine decisions such as reducing herd numbers, buying fodder earlier or changing milking frequency before available cash is exhausted.
The project is centred partly on the Murray-Darling Basin, including northern Victoria and the southern Riverina, where dairy production relies heavily on regulated surface-water allocations and seasonal irrigation trading. In prolonged dry periods or years with low allocations, water entitlements can become more expensive, while locally produced pasture may be scarce and the cost of grain, hay and silage may rise.
Clark’s work will also consider the financial use of digital decision-support platforms. Dairy businesses can face pressure when drought responses are delayed, including higher costs for supplementary feed or lower proceeds from selling less productive cows. Forecasting tools may allow managers to compare break-even positions, cash requirements and water consumption while planning for different conditions.
During the next 18 months, Clark is due to visit agricultural-technology centres in the United States, Europe and New Zealand. She will study commercial software, university research programmes and automated dairy farms using artificial intelligence and digital twins. Andy Clarke, Nuffield Australia’s chief executive, said that producer-led international research could generate management models for use by Australian farmers.
The scholarship comes as dairy producers in the region manage variable water availability and changing global commodity prices. The research will examine how advanced data systems are being applied at farm level and how those applications may be relevant to Australia’s dairy industry.
