Getting the crop in
This highly anticipated annual event once again attracted huge crowds.. With the aim to help growers head into the 2021 growing season fully-armed with the latest cropping information. The half-day program was program was presented to farmers and industry representatives keen to hear agronomy and crop trial updates, staffing tips and plant breeding news.
Featured Farmer Speaker - David 'Seth' Cooper
The featured farmer speaker was David 'Seth' Cooper of CC Cooper Co who gave an insight into his family's expansive farming operations which now span from its heartlands in Jamestown to Western Australia near the SA border and east into far western New South Wales.
Guests heard of some of the challenges the Coopers have faced farming in 'new' country to them and in such a geographically expansive area, with an account of what has worked and what has not including some of the issues associated with farming across the border during the lockdowns of 2020.
The Hart Trials Results book was officially launched, with Hart trial researchers Dr Sarah Noack and outgoing Hart intern Briana Guidera sharing some of the key highlights.
Briana also presented findings from the Hart oats trial including the Kingbale IMI (imidazolinone)-tolerant variety and the National Hay Agronomy Project, of which Hart is one of four trial sites in Australia with the aim to reduce barriers to the adoption of new oat varieties.
Other Highlights...
Staffing in rural and regional Australia remains a challenge, and Pinion Advisory senior agribusiness consultant Carlyn Sherriff shared some of her top tips for attracting and retaining staff – among them culture, communication, clarity/ownership, employing on attitude and training staff, professionalism and compliance and being an employer of choice.
Ben Harfield of Glencore Agriculture gave guests a grain market update, looking at some of the drivers of the season gone and the year ahead including China barley tariffs, food security and the flow-on of COVID19, global feed grain demand and global pricing.
Roseworthy-based Australian Grain Technologies (AGT) chief executive officer and head of breeding Haydn Kuchel gave an insightful, and at times humorous, insight into the evolving plant breeding process and just how far it has come in recent years.
