GRDC’s 2024 Grains Research Updates began in February with more than 400 growers, agronomists and researchers in attendance at the Adelaide Convention Centre to hear about and discuss some of the latest developments advancing the grains industry. It was the first of a number of Updates scheduled during February across Australia’s cropping regions, which are also accessible online.

Opening the Update, GRDC managing director Nigel Hart outlined the organisation’s key investment areas aimed at ensuring Australian growers continue to improve profitability and sustainability. These investments are worth close to $230 million this year, covering issues both on-farm and off.

Mr Hart said GRDC was focused on research that would set growers up for the next 20 to 30 years, helping the industry to meet the demand and expectations that come with grain production in modern society.

He highlighted Ag2050, a collaboration with CSIRO and a large cohort across the grains industry, which is looking to achieve sustained economic profitability for the grains sector “out over the horizon”.

This twin goal of maintaining sustainability and profitability into 2050 and beyond could be met by combining “old principles” of agronomy and farming systems with new and novel technologies and tools, such as gene editing and artificial intelligence, he said.

“It’s critically important that policy settings across the industry are informed by sound research and empirical evidence, so that farmers can continue to produce the feed, food and fuel required by domestic and international markets while remaining profitable into the long term,” he said.

A sustainable future

Mr Hart pointed to the GRDC sustainability initiative released in 2023, which has already resulted in an extra $62 million for sustainability-related investments. This builds on more than $200 million worth of existing investments that deliver environmental benefits – for example, responsible pesticide use and improved soil health, he said.

Key sustainability investment areas include:

• Working with Grains Australia to ensure growers retain and grow global grains markets – an issue of increasing importance in light of changing requirements around market access, particularly in Europe;
• Developing a cross-industry environmental accounting platform with Agricultural Innovation Australia to help growers calculate and report on-farm emissions;
• Working with fellow research and development corporations to build socio-economic resilience in rural areas and build community trust; and
• Ongoing on-farm research such as looking at developing farming systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity.

Mr Hart also detailed the National Risk Management Initiative, RiskWi$e, a $30 million, five-year investment led by CSIRO, which is partnering with 26 grower groups across the country. Launched in 2023, this project aims to help growers better understand decision-making and risk by considering the cost of a range of possible downside outcomes and potential upside benefits.

“It’s a big cohort of partners, but we are enabling farmers to learn from farmers at local levels, while also aggregating key lessons at regional and national scales,” he said.

Optimistic market outlook

Grain trading expert and Lachstock Consulting chief executive Nick Carracher said in his plenary address that in a global market context, Australian growers had reason to be optimistic about 2024.

Outlining likely scenarios in international grain markets, Mr Carracher said demand for Australian wheat remained strong as supply had grown. “Despite the fact we’ve had some big crops in Australia, there has been more demand, so we have drawn down on our inventory and have less grain at the end of the year,” he said.

This balance between what is produced and consumed is known in trading terms as a ‘stocks to use’ ratio. Calculated as a percentage, it is a key measure in predicting grain prices. “The lower the ratio, the tighter the balance sheet,” he said. And in 2024-25 this ratio was expected to be at an historically low five per cent, driven by strong exports.

Multiple “smouldering geopolitical fires” – including the Russia-Ukraine war, grower protests in Europe over environmental regulations, and Yemini Houthi militia targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea – in isolation might have, five years ago, “blown the market up”, he said. But they hadn’t yet had an impact on Australian grain markets.

He warned, however, that growers might face extra costs and time delays, as shipments of grain or farm inputs avoided passage through the Red Sea. But, he said, the relatively low Australian dollar is helping maintain the competitiveness of Australian grain in global markets.

The value of research

An international agronomic perspective was also provided by plenary speaker Dr Sheri Strydhorst.

A grain grower and research scientist from north-western Alberta, she explained how in Canada, like Australia, there was a focus on achieving improved profitability while reducing the footprint of food production.

Improving nitrogen use efficiency was key in this ambition, but Dr Strydhorst said growers should be wary of new products that claim a “quick fix” to soil health, and instead rely on trusted products and agronomic practices proven by robust research to achieve meaningful benefits.

For example, Canadian trials had shown that when best-management fertiliser practices such as “right time and right place” were followed, the benefits of new products were not significant in the vast majority of cases. Caution should be used when deciding to apply new products that were not “tried and true”, she said.

“At the end of the day, we need to implement small-plot research and farm trials to understand the likely benefits for farmers, and this takes time, planning and knowledge. I applaud everyone who is here (at the Adelaide Update) and online for taking the time to attend, learning about the latest developments, and then trying do things better on-farm,” she said.