Grain growers are being provided with a kickstart to the 2020 season thanks to a series of pre-sowing webinars focused on pulse crops during the next few weeks.

In preparation for this year's cropping season, the webinars will enable growers to hear from leading industry experts without leaving their farms.

The series of short online webinars are being provided as part of the GRDC Southern Region Pulse Extension Project.

The four Growing Pulses in 2020 webinars are scheduled for March 12, 16 and 17 and will cover topics such as:

• inoculation and nodulation;
• growing pulses on sand; and
• pulse markets.

GRDC Manager of Agronomy and Farming Systems - South, Allison Pearson, says this year's Growing Pulses webinar series follows a well-received inaugural series in 2019 (see example below), during which industry experts provided an overview of relevant agronomic information, pulse research findings and current market information by pulse crop type.

"More and more growers are becoming interested in growing pulses to improve their farming systems and overall profitability," Dr Pearson says.

"Through this webinar series, the GRDC is supporting new and established pulse growers with information and advice to underpin successful production.

"The webinar format allows growers and other industry personnel to conveniently tune in from their homes or offices."

The GRDC Southern Region Pulse Extension Project ('Building capacity, skills and knowledge for the pulse industry in the southern region: Supporting expansion of high value pulses into new areas and ensuring sustained profitability of all key pulse crops') began in 2017 and is delivered by a consortium of organisations involved in the pulse industry across the GRDC's southern region.

Its objective is to increase the knowledge of growers and advisers on sustainable pulse production, leading to improved farming systems and grower profitability.

Growers are encouraged to join the webinars live to interact with industry experts and to extract the most value from each forum.

For those who cannot tune in to the live webinars, recordings - which can be viewed at any time - will be made available on the GRDC website following the events.

Webinar times and registration details:

• Thursday, March 12, 11am AEDT: Inoculation and nodulation of pulses - Ross Ballard, South Australian Research and Development Institute.
• Monday, March 16, 11am AEDT: Growing pulses on sand - Michael Moodie, Frontier Farming Systems.
• Tuesday, March 17: 11am AEDT: Pulse markets for Victoria and SA, pre-season 2020 - Francois Darcus, AgriOz Exports.
• Tuesday, March 17: 2pm AEDT: Pulse Markets for New South Wales, pre-season 2020 - Adam Robinson, Robinson Grain.

GRDC Research Code BWD9175825

More Information: Amy Harwood, BCG, 0456 979561, amy.harwood@bcg.org.au.