About & Methodology

State fill colors on the interactive map are derived from NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) values. NASA MODIS 250m satellite data is fetched for each of the 26 production regions, then averaged by state. The green-to-brown color scale represents vegetation health — greener states indicate healthier pasture conditions.

Calculated as EYCI (c/kg) divided by CBOT Wheat price (converted to AUD/t). A rising ratio indicates expanding cattle margins relative to feed costs; a falling ratio signals a feed cost squeeze. This is a widely-used profitability proxy in the Australian livestock industry.

Price cards display a 52-week range bar showing where the current price sits within its annual trading range. The bar is calculated from the minimum and maximum closing prices over the trailing 52 weeks of available data.

The Market Pulse panel on the home page ranks commodities by absolute percentage change (descending). This surfaces the most volatile movers first, regardless of direction, giving a quick snapshot of where the action is.

Python FastAPI with SQLite for persistent storage, APScheduler for data fetching schedules, and Redis for caching satellite tiles and rate-limited responses.

Next.js 16 (App Router) with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui components, react-simple-maps for the interactive Australia map, and Recharts for time series visualizations.

Docker Compose orchestrating three services: Redis, FastAPI backend, and Next.js frontend. All data fetching runs server-side on scheduled intervals.