Australia
SEptember 8, 2011
A walk through 448 replicated pasture trial plots and an expert-led discussion about new varieties will kick off a special seminar for southern New South Wales farmers and their advisers on Monday, September 19.
New pasture options and selection tools, the latest trial results and practical advice for establishing more productive pastures for the coming seasons, and extracting maximum value from them, will be showcased by an impressive line-up of speakers at the ‘Innovations in Pasture Technology’ seminar.
The forum at Eurongilly will feature presentations by independent industry experts from throughout Australia. They include Dr Phil Nicholls, senior plant breeder with the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, who will talk about innovations in sub clover which offer improved pest and disease tolerance.
The event has been organised by Seed Force, an independent seed wholesale company which runs Australia’s largest commercial regional pasture variety screening program. The business has more than 8000 replicated research plots trialling 23 different forage species under local conditions at 25 sites across six states.
Seed Force’s Australian Business Director and respected pasture specialist, Mike Gout (photo), said Australian livestock producers had maintained their global competitiveness by being at the forefront of developing and adopting the latest technology so they were better able to withstand the constant cost-price squeeze in agriculture.
“This seminar will give people the chance to hear about the latest innovations which have been trialled and tested in Australia, and it will focus the economic spotlight on their ability to improve farm returns,” he said.
Following lunch at the Eurongilly Hall, Seed Force New Zealand Managing Director Warwick Green will provide an insight into global agricultural research and development, the current trends and their potential impact on Australian farmers.
Getting the basics right in terms of genetics, nutrition and management will be the subject of a presentation by Andrew Harborrne from Greenleaf Agronomy, Goulburn, while Meat and Livestock Australia’s program to deliver tools for selecting species and cultivars will also be outlined.
Water use efficient summer crop options and the economics of innovation adoption will be addressed by Mr Gout who will also explain a new forage rating system which has been developed by Seed Force to analyse all the available trial data and compare how cultivars perform against accepted variety benchmarks.
The system has been developed in conjunction with a new calculator which makes it much easier for producers and their advisers to clearly see the financial impact of different cultivars and management decisions on the bottom line.
The program will conclude with a panel discussion about the latest pasture systems and associated farming practices.
The event will be held at Eurongilly from 10am to 4pm, enabling pasture plot inspections either before or after the seminar which will run from 12.30pm until 3.30pm. To assist with catering arrangements, people who wish to attend and have lunch should register by contacting James Brady from Seed Force on 0447 565457 or email jamesbrady@seedforce.com
Topics
Species
