MALLEE Sustainable Farming has been awarded the 2013 Grower Group Sustainability Award, picking up the honour at the Ag Excellence Alliance forum at Mawson Lakes on Monday night.
The award is supported by the Department of Environment, Water & Natural Resources.
MSF has had a massive year of events, including the Managing Farms in Climate Change conference in Mildura and the Karoonda in the Cloud technology event.
The Lowbank branch of the Agricultural Bureau of South Australia – which ran a trial of seeders at Waikerie last year – was awarded a special encouragement award.
Last year's winner of the Grower Group Sustainability Award was the Yorke Peninsula Alkaline Soils Group. It used the award win to set up a special members and sponsors pre-harvest dinner, which featured Bali bombing survivor and former footballer Julian Burton. He also established the Julian Burton Burns Trust – Australia's leading non-profit organisation dedicated to burns injury.
The event had such a strong response that YP Alkaline Soils now plans to make it an annual event.
Guest speaker at the Ag Excellence Alliance dinner, DEWNR senior technical advisor Tim Herrmann outlined the Future Farm Landscapes project undertaken on Eyre Peninsula.
It uses property planning to look ahead at how farmers can adapt to climate change. The project also helps farmers identify native vegetation areas of high importance.
"So, if the farmer only has one free day a year, he can use it to concentrate on that area, whether that be trapping rabbits, or cleaning out weeds," he said.
*Full report in Stock Journal, March 28 issue, 2013.
