WATER quality will be monitored at 30 new sites across the Wet Tropics to give farmers a better idea of what is going on in their backyards.
Farmers on the Tully and Johnstone river basins are involved in the project, which will provide new data about water quality in the region.
The monitoring is part of a reef water quality project being delivered as part of the Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project (MIP), which aims to capture water quality at different scales.
Basin coordinator Sandra Henrich said up until now, most monitoring results have been aggregated from a large area with lots of different users and uses.
"End of catchment monitoring gives a 'big picture' look at long term trends in the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, but it makes it hard for someone to know what their relative contribution is," Ms Henrich said.
Monitoring at the paddock scale compares different land management practices and the effect that improved practices have on water quality.
Sub-catchment monitoring tracks how water quality changes as it moves down a creek system through different land uses and land types, including rainforest, agriculture and urban.
"Lots of factors, like rainfall, soil type and management practices all influence how nutrients, sediment and pesticide move, and how water quality is affected," Ms Henrich said.
"There's no 'good' or 'bad' data - it's all just information that helps landholders understand how nutrients, sediment and pesticides are behaving in the basin, so they can tailor practical solutions.
"Farmers have been asking for this kind of data for a long time. It will contribute to a growing bank of information that will help inform farm decision making."
Innisfail canegrowers member Dean Sinton said farmers had been asking for more data.
"We've been asking for more localised water quality results and that's what we're getting," Mr Sinton said.
Ms Henrich said that everyone is particularly keen to see how the wet season affects water quality.
A series of shed meeting have been running from November last year, with data delivered at 14 meetings across the Johnstone and Tully regions, to around 85 farmers.
Shed meetings will continue throughout the year.