A SENIOR cereal research scientist who has been a shining light for the SA grain industry across the past four decades has retired from SARDI.
For anyone who attended crop walks or field days in SA, Rob Wheeler’s face was a familiar one.
At the annual Hart Field Days, Rob’s talks on varieties were always one of the most popular sessions.
Hart Field Site Group chairman Damien Sommerville said Rob was not only a regular speaker at the main Hart Field Day in September, he was also a guest presenter at the Getting The Crop In seminar held in March.
“Rob has been a very long-term, ag-committed regular at the Hart Field Days,” he said. “His sessions were always seen as one of the most highly-regarded and best attended in the Hart program.
“He would regularly get more than 200 people listen to him speak.”
Mr Sommerville said Rob’s variety trials presentations would be sorely missed at cropping events.
“Rob’s retirement leaves a big hole in the industry,” he said.
“He had such an amazing knowledge of crop varieties and also a great ability to talk off the cuff.”
Mr Wheeler led SARDI’s New Variety Agronomy Program and coordinated the National Variety Trials in SA and the Vic Mallee.
He was also the driving force behind the annual publication of SARDI’s crop variety sowing guide and post harvest crop reports for more than 15 years.
These publications helped more than 8000 SA growers, consultants and agribusinesses to make informed sowing decisions when planning their annual cropping programs.
SARDI acting executive director Kathy Ophel-Keller said Rob had made an enormous difference to farmers through his work.
“Rob has made a significant contribution to the SA grain industry during his remarkable 39-year career,” she said.
“He has been a key figure nationally in crop agronomy and a champion for the NVTs, which provide objective advice annually to graingrowers across the country on evaluation of new crop varieties.
“The annual crop sowing guide and NVT results provide essential, accredited and unbiased information to growers to support their sowing decisions.
“He was a familiar and highly-regarded figure at field days across SA and spent a great deal of time engaging with growers and advisors on his work.”
In his work, Rob managed agronomic research projects in barley, durum wheat, cereal and pulse herbicide tolerance, and supported a range of other agronomic projects.
In 2012, he received one of the grain industry’s most-coveted awards, the GRDC Seed of Light, for his outstanding contribution in communicating the findings of cereal variety research to the Australian grains industry.
Across the latter part of his career, Rob mentored numerous young research scientists in the field of agronomy and crop evaluation, many of whom have gone on to establish significant careers of their own.
SARDI research scientist Andrew Ware will take on the management the New Variety Agronomy Program.
Southern Australia Durum Growers Association chairman Alwyn Dyer, Kaniva, Vic, said Rob would be missed, as he had a wealth of knowledge on crop varieties.
“Rob was a valuable part of our crop walks because of his knowledge of NVT results,” he said.
“He always talked to us about up-and-coming varieties, their good and bad points and what showed the most potential, and which of the older varieties might be superseded.
“We wish him well in retirement, but he will be missed.”
