Greg Laughlin, a scientist with Australia's Bureau of Rural Sciences, said the tool will be easy to use for the farmer.

"You could literally peruse it in one to two minutes and then go back to the tractor ... The number-crunching that goes on behind the scenes is unbelievable," he told Reuters.

Covering 3,300 sites across Australia, predictions are made for 13 weeks into the future. A range of background information and predictions are provided for each site, which are updated weekly.

"In a perfect world we could predict a couple of seasons out. But we're not there yet," Laughlin said. "We are trying to basically predict the season once it gets underway, or just before it, to say this is how it's tracking."

Background information covers average growing seasons, weather patterns, and how reliable rainfall is. Rainfall, soil moisture and simulated pasture growth are all projected into the future. The tool, produced with the backing of Meat & Livestock Australia, is primarily designed for livestock producers. But it could be adapted for wheat farmers and others, indicating, for example, planting prospects.

Laughlin wants to see how the model performs before it is commercialised, but he believes it would work just as well anywhere in the world.