YEELANNA farmer Randall Wilksch will give a personal insight into his experiences with controlled traffic, precision farming and women in agriculture, as guest farmer speaker at the Hart Field-Site Group’s free Getting The Crop In seminar in Clare on March 23.
Mr Wilksch farms 3650 hectares on the Lower Eyre Peninsula with wife Julie, parents Max and Julie, brother Jordy and his wife Kylie.
The 2016 Syngenta Australia grower sustainability award winners have been focussed on CTF since 2012.
“We’re definitely not fanatical in our approach, and I’ll speak about how our business found a system that works for us,” Randall said.
Randall will also give an insight into Wilksch Agriculture’s precision agriculture methods, including soil mapping of their “highly variable soil types”, and investment and education in the supporting technology and equipment required.
For the first time in 2016, pH testing across the Wilksch’s Yeelanna property gave additional information to the EM38 and gamma radiometric testing conducted in 2015.
“It has really helped us understand how wide the differences in our soil are and to get a better handle on variable rate fertilising,” Randall said.
Randall will also share his experiences as a Nuffield scholar and his research topic looking at why females are not choosing careers in agriculture.
“We need to stop thinking only about boys being the next generation of farmers and start encouraging women,” he said.
“I’m a father of two boys and two girls – I won’t be putting any pressure on them to choose farming as a career but there’s a perception out there that boys are the farmers and girls go and do something else, and I just couldn’t work out why that is.
“In my grandfather’s day, farming was more physical, but it’s not these days and the farming business is changing. It’s more of a business, not just a family show.
“Women have such different perspectives and have a whole different approach to things – they have a lot to bring to the table in running a farming business.”
Other guest speakers at the seminar include farm consultant Mick Faulkner on farming with frost and Chris Heinjus from Rural Directions presenting market and commodity information.
Hart trial results will also be launched and discussed, including findings from wheat time of sowing and soil nutrient trials, while for the first time this year, a panel of three farmers will feature in a Q&A session that will enable discussion and questions from the floor.
The seminar runs from 8am-12.30pm at The Vines Christian Church, with a GRDC Farm Business Update held afterwards at the same venue.
- Details: hartfieldsite.org.au