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Southern, 28 Sep 2021
Agronomic finesse underpins winning crop
Weatherboard grower Ben Findlay received the ‘southern Victoria highest yield’ award for growing a 31ha paddock of the RGT Accroc wheat variety that yielded 10.4 tonnes/ha during the 2020 season. Ben explores the mix of variety selection and agronomic practices implemented on his family's farm in south-western Victoria that contributed to the award-winning wheat crop.
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Southern, 27 Sep 2021
Inoculant development a key to growing pulses on acidic soils
Bungeet, Victoria, growers John and Peter Alexander have grown a variety of pulses since starting with lupins in the late 1970s. They participate in GRDC’s Southern Pulse Extension Dookie Pulse Check discussion group, which connects like-minded growers who are happy to share their experiences.
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Southern, 07 Sep 2021
Irrigation and drainage investment help maximise HRZ yields
Managing waterlogging has become one of the keys to combining grain growing with more-traditional vegetable production on the Cole family’s farm at Cressy, Tasmania. Draining wet paddocks allows for a more-flexible farming regime in northern Tasmania, where cereals can more than pay their way alongside crops such as potatoes and peas.
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Southern, 22 Jun 2021
Hay enterprise underpins crop expansion
A sophisticated export hay enterprise has provided a profitable, low-risk foundation for a South Australian family’s cropping expansion at Lameroo in the southern Mallee region. Grower, agronomist and GRDC southern region panelist Lou Flohr says the total farm area, including owned and leased land, has more than doubled from 2000 to 4500 hectares in the past five years.
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Southern, 15 Jun 2021
Hay enterprise provides risk buffer for crops
Flohr and Co – a farming partnership between Lou Flohr and Andy Hunt, and Lou’s parents Gary and Janet Flohr – has built a hay enterprise that provides important refuge from seasonal risk at Lameroo in South Australia's Mallee region. The hay enterprise has also lifted the overall productivity and profitability of the 4500-hectare mixed farm business which, in turn, has facilitated cropping expansion.
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Southern, 07 Jun 2021
Dodging frost a numbers game
The statistics behind sowing and flowering times guide South Australian grower James Venning’s approach to frost avoidance. A small portion of his land on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula is subject to frost, and it is this area that has been the focus of his recent experiments with new wheat varieties.
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Southern, 20 May 2021
New equipment improves crop establishment for Crystal Brook grower
Farming on the sandy clay loams of Crystal Brook, the Sargent family have been early adopters of no-till farming since 1999 and believe that crop establishment is key for success.
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Southern, 20 May 2021
Crop establishment learnings from the Wimmera
For the Rethus family, who farm around Horsham, good crop establishment is critical for success.
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Southern, 18 May 2021
Deep thinking drives machinery development
The Vennings - Todd, Brad and David - purpose-built a subsoil manuring machine from 2019 to 2021 to improve the structure of duplex brown soils, particularly the heavy clay subsoil, on their family farm at Hamilton, Victoria. The novel machine aims to remediate the soil structure with two particular functions – deep ripping and deep placement of organic matter.
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Southern, 17 May 2021
On-farm test spurs novel machine
Todd and Brad Venning have built a novel subsoil manuring machine to ameliorate waterlogging-prone soils on their property near Hamilton, Victoria.