2019 Spring Field Day
On a warm day in mid-September (Tuesday the 17th to be precise!), we held our annual Spring Field Day. The day started off with an unexpected power outage at the CRC a set-back which our presenter from Rabobank, Craig Matthews, was able to carry off with aplomb as he discussed rural land values.
From there, we headed out to the paddock at Trent and Tina Parsons, where we looked at the 2019 GRDC National Variety Trials for wheat and barley. These were presented by Georgia Trainor of Intergrain, and Dion Bennett of AGT Breeding, and supported by the Kalyx trial management team.
From there, we moved to 2 of the Landmark trials being run in the Shire this year. The first was hosted by Nathan & Wendy Brown adjacent to the aerodrome. This very interesting trial looked at different grazing options and how much food could be produced from a given variety. The other trial was hosted by Viridis, Tantanoola, just to the west of town and looked at some new pre-emergent chemical options which will add to farmer options. Both trials were enthusiastically presented by Kyran Brooks, and Landmark trials coordinator Brad Westphal.
We then travelled to south Needilup to look at Pete & Jolene Daniel’s RM4 vetch, as well as their K-Hart disc seeder and some reveg which was seeded in the same paddock earlier in the year. The RM4 was seeded in early April and had kicked into gear with some impressive biomass evident on the day. The Daniel’s had been very happy with their seeding program this year, and the performance of their newly purchased disc seeder. They have found it hugely beneficial in seeding directly into pasture paddocks in particular. Geoff Woodall took us through the reveg site which is aiming to rehabilitate some salty country along a creekline. One of the aims is to plant native options that may also have some strategic grazing opportunities, particularly in drier years.
After a delicious lunch provided by the Jerramungup DHS P&C (particular thanks to Tina Parsons, Nikki Carthew and Jess Bailey), we headed out to look at a different vetch option at Wade Brown’s. Wade has been a fan of vetch for many years, predominantly to fill a feed gap and because of its reliability in their mixed farming system. From there, we looked at Nathan Brown’s sheep feedlot set up (very efficient!) which provoked lots of discussion and tyre kicking.
It had been a pretty warm day (around 29-30C), so we were then glad to head back to the Needilup Pavilion for our afternoon session.
We were lucky enough to have a presentation from Owen Hayes-Thompson, a mixed farmer from Bruce Rock who faces many of the same issues in his low to mid rainfall environment. It was fantastic to have an outside perspective and to hear how similar (and different) problems are approached.
In keeping with this year’s livestock focus, we then heard from Mark Allington who presented on behalf of AWI The Sheep’s Back, looking at what the top sheep producers are doing.
We ended this part of the day with a farmer panel which concentrated on the future of farming and opinions on different technologies, social media, animal activists, and many other topics.
Finally, the Department of Water & Environmental Regulation arrived to give an update on community water storages in the area, particularly as we continue not to have received significant run-off rain events. Also, they updated us on the Emergency Farm Water Rebate Scheme, and assured us that the applications from the previous financial year were being finalised.
After a day jam-packed full of information, we ended the day with a sundowner sponsored by Lawson Grains, with a keg of FBG’s own Biosphere Brew (Bay to Bush) being supplied as a taster of what we could expect for the keenly anticipated Dancing in the Dirt Pre-Harvest Gala Ball. The sausage sizzle was sponsored by CBH.