The agricultural industry is notorious for surveys. We could win gold medals if market research was an Olympic sport.

As a grain grower, I am surveyed on just about everything – farm practices, technology change, policy issues, machinery performance, communication preferences, and the list goes on and on.

I know it is all for a good purpose, feeding into a deeper understanding of our sector and supporting informed decision-making and investment, but some days it can feel a bit intense, especially during peak times on-farm.

At GRDC, we try to minimise our surveys and maximise their impact. To that end, we have run a cornerstone grower survey every year since 1993. That means we have probably captured the insights of at least two generations from many grower families.

While we monitor our achievement against our key performance indicators – as you would and should expect – we are more interested in what is happening at industry and paddock levels. You have told us 79 per cent of the grower community feel they have directly benefited from research, development and extension (RD&E) and that GRDC played a role in the benefit.

Making a positive difference

That is what drives our team: the fact that RD&E, funded by your grain levies and delivered by research and industry partners, has made a positive difference on your farm. It is a great outcome.

Furthermore, confidence in the future of the grains industry is equally encouraging, according to the survey. I acknowledge this has been helped by back-to-back good seasons in many parts of the country, although some areas are still keenly looking for more rain while others are hoping for clear skies.

This year, just less than 60 per cent of respondents viewed the industry as being in “extremely good to good shape”, which is the highest level since 2005.

In my own region, growers are optimistic after years of drought. But every season brings challenges, such as significant rainfall which, in some cases, is causing issues with crop disease management and persistent mice. Even though every season is different and unpredictable, there are resources to help growers and advisers with decision-making, which is a result of growers investing over time in R&D through GRDC.

On the practice-change front, where we look at adoption of RD&E, nine out of 10 growers said they had changed on-farm practices over the past three years, with nearly two-thirds stating this was due to R&D outcomes and/or GRDC information. That is a powerful result and a testament to the willingness of growers to keep pushing the boundaries to find new and better ways to manage their farming systems.

Confidence in R&D is enabling us to invest in practice change and benefit from the impact.

With a recent property purchase in our own farming business, we identified that a soil amelioration strategy was required. It resulted in deep ripping the whole property and gypsum application on a particular soil type, which was 40 per cent of the property. We went all-in, leaving only one 18-metre strip through the property untouched as a baseline. The result in the first crop was a more than one-tonne-per-hectare increase in barley yield.

Confidence in R&D is enabling us to invest in practice change and benefit from the impact. That is what we measure through our annual survey because we want to make sure every grower dollar invested in RD&E is not only earning its keep, but also driving profitability.

The feedback this year is positive and constructive for GRDC, but it is not something we ever take for granted. Later this year, we will be following up with a more-detailed farm practices survey so we can really understand how RD&E is transforming Australian grain growing. R&D is not practice change until it is implemented, whether it be agronomy or husbandry, or a new gene in a variety.

If we expect you to grow and change your business every year, building on the foundations with new ideas, technology and better, more sustainable ways of farming, then you should expect us to be alongside generating RD&E solutions like the many outlined in this edition of GroundCover.

That is a partnership. I strongly encourage you to make the most of every opportunity to have your say and engage with GRDC through many channels such as our National Grower Network, GRDC Updates, regional staff and regional panel members.