By Charlotte Wooldridge | posted on March 13, 2020
WESTERN Australia’s final five have been announced for the prestigious 2020 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award, with Albany being represented by Lucy Anderton.
The agricultural economist owns a farm in partnership with her husband and has been working in the agriculture industry for the past 30 years.
“I came out here to Australia as a backpacker and ended up working on a sheep station in the goldfields,” she said.
Ms Anderton recognised the need for an easy-to-use whole-of-farm business analysis tool to assist with building resilience in the industry.
Working with agricultural stakeholders, Ms Anderton designed FARMSMART®, which allows users to explore alternative scenarios, enterprise mix and seasonal conditions.
The software is currently being developed and tested, but will be available for farmers to trial around April this year, with hopes it will be fully available in September.
The $10,000 business development award, should Ms Anderton win, will go towards helping develop FARMSMART® and will allow her to compete in the national AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award.
With this technology, Ms Anderton hopes to provide a realistic solution for farmers across Australia.
The WA Award winner will be announced at a ceremony in Perth on Wednesday, April 8.
