One of the grains industry’s most entertaining and engaging extension figures has been recognised for his efforts to support and inform growers in the southern cropping region.

Dale Grey, a respected seasonal risk agronomist and communicator with Agriculture Victoria, has been presented with the GRDC 2022 southern Seed of Light Award.

Voted upon by the GRDC Southern Region Panel, the Seed of Light award acknowledges outstanding effort in the extension of outcomes from GRDC investments.

The award was announced during this week’s online GRDC Grains Research Update.

Based in Bendigo, Victoria, Mr Grey has worked for Agriculture Victoria for 27 years and currently provides agronomy, climate and weather analysis for farmers, agribusiness, government and the media across south eastern Australia.

GRDC Southern Region Panel member Michael Treloar, who presented the award, says Mr Grey used a variety of approaches to make his information both entertaining and informative.

“Seasonal climate forecasting can be a very dry topic, but Dale's engaging presentation style – usually involving a Hawaiian shirt and a ukulele – brings colour and energy to what he delivers,” he says.

GRDC Southern Region Panel member Michael Treloar (left) presenting the Seed of Light Award to Dale Grey during the online GRDC Grains Research Update.

Mr Grey has been interpreting climate models from around the world every month since 2008 and converting these insights into grower-friendly resources.

“Dale is the author of the Fast Break climate newsletters for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and southern New South Wales, and he produces a monthly YouTube climate update, the Very Fast Break, which is an entertaining series that breaks down climate concepts relative to the season, using easy to understand analogies,” Mr Treloar said.

“For the past three years he has also worked alongside GRDC as part of a large multidisciplinary team on the national Forewarned is Forearmed project, gathering insights on hot, cold, wet and dry extreme forecasts from the new BoM ACCESS-S model and searching for improved ways to communicate these forecasts for farmers.

“Dale enthusiastically shares his climate and forecasting knowledge with farmers and advisers and has presented at hundreds of rural events and forums to improve how we all understand what drives our seasonal rainfall.”

Mr Treloar says The Break series of extension products had played a critical role in helping growers understand climate drivers, different models and model skills.

“Every time you hear a grower say ‘climate models have low accuracy at sowing’, you know that’s a consequence of The Break and Dale’s many kilometres travelled.”

Mr Treloar says Mr Grey was “a man of many talents and attributes”.

“He has been a pioneer of digital communications (his e-newsletters have been in circulation for more than a decade), he is an avid supporter of early career extension professionals, and is well versed in topics right across grain production, including frost and statistics.

“He has also been an important contributor to Agriculture Victoria’s award-winning CropSafe program which is a critical tool in identifying potential exotic pests and disease threats to Victoria’s grains industry.”

Mr Grey said the award was an “incredible surprise” which was “most unexpected”.

He paid tribute to his colleagues, supervisors and managers who he said have given him the freedom to do interesting work and allowed him to be himself.

Mr Grey also thanked those individuals who had inspired him with their “good ideas”, as well as the GRDC Southern Panel members who nominated him for the award.

“Over the past 17 years, climate and weather has been a fascinating space for me to work in because there’s always something going on – new findings in the science, new information to extend and new understandings,” Mr Grey says.

“It’s been a fun career; it doesn’t really feel like work”.