More than 150 farmers, advisors and industry representatives gathered in Clare this week for the annual Hart Field-Site Group’s Getting the Crop In seminar.
With a line-up of international and state-wide speakers, the group left armed with the most up-to-date information and predictions on grain markets, grain varieties and detailed reports on how last year’s crops performed.
Hart Field-Site Group chairman and Brinkworth farmer Justin Wundke says participants are now well poised to tackle the coming growing season.
“We were excited to once again bring a quality line-up of speakers to the Mid North for this seminar to provide very practical advice and market predictions at a time of the year when farmers are starting to focus on seeding,” he said.
“It won’t be long and we’ll be looking for good opening rains to kick-start the growing season.”
International speaker, Rabobank AgriFinance and International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory senior vice-president Sterling Liddell from Missouri, US, gave his perspective on how
American farming issues affect Australian growers, including the trends, challenges and risks in the market.
Mr Liddell has been touring South Australia this past week.
Eyre Peninsula farmer Mark Modra gave an insight into his family farming operations, including the challenges of farming on Thistle Island, off Port Lincoln, and the innovative solutions and
machinery adaptions required to meet the challenges.
He spoke of the need to “respectively challenge people and systems” in his approach to farming, as well as his experiences travelling the world as a Nuffield Scholar and his observations as a member of the Rabobank Global Farmers Masterclass in 2014.
Highly-respected SARDI New Variety Evaluation senior scientist Rob Wheeler gave a comprehensive rundown on last season’s cereal variety performances.
He also advised the Crop Performance Report is expected to be available on the PIRSA website in late March.
AvantAgri Australia’s Malcolm Barholomaeus spoke about ‘What the market is telling us to sow’, including price predictions and global production trends.
Hart Field-Site Group research and extension manager Sarah Noack presented the key findings and updates on the 2014 Hart Trials, including the official release of the 2014 Hart Trials Results book.
The book is now available to download free online, with a limited number of hard copies also available for purchase.
Ms Noack led 34 trials across almost 2000 plots and covered crop varieties including wheat, barley and durum, as well as agronomy, nutrition, weed management and herbicides, disease management and cropping systems and management.
* Details: www.hartfieldsite.org.au
