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Field Tours

On Thursday 14th September, attendees will be able to undertake any one of five fascinating field tours - matched to the conference themes wherever possible.

On the bus you will be accompanied by your ‘Tour Team’ consisting of local experts to guide you through the landscape and describe the various farming systems we pass through.

Tour 1: Participatory Research & Adopting Agronomy: Visit to a Grower Group Spring Field Day

Tour Leaders: Tracey Gianatti and Ken Flower

The WA No-tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA) Spring field day is one of Australia’s leading conservation and agronomic field days. Situated in Meckering, approximately 130km east of Perth, this tour will allow you to interact with farmers and agronomists from around WA to gain an insight into local issues firsthand. Using a ‘Choose your own adventure’ timetable, you will be able to see trials and demonstrations including: no-tillage practice and technology; long-term stubble management; raised bed cropping and the use of annual pasture species as cover crops.

In addition, there will be a chance to visit a Sustainable Grazing of Saline Land (SGSL) site where a transect experiment is being conducted to determine the optimal location of a range of perennial and annual saltland pasture species and whether rows of old man saltbush can act as ‘biological drains’ to lower the water table.

Tracey Gianatti has been working with grower groups for the past 8 years. Currently, she is the coordinator for the Grower Group Alliance project funded by the GRDC. This project works with over 15 grower groups across the WA wheatbelt to increase farmers’ ability to access information in order to improve their farm business decisions. WANTFA (www.wantfa.com.au) is a core member of the Alliance and is delighted to be able to ‘show off’ a large variety of no-tillage trials and demonstrations to attendees at the agronomy conference.

Tour 2: New Pasture Systems for Short Growing Season Landscapes

Tour Leaders: Clinton Revell & Phil Nichols

This tour will examine new pasture systems along a medium to low rainfall transect extending 180km east from Perth into the central wheatbelt. The tour will focus on four main themes:
i) cropping systems incorporating new annual pasture legumes;
ii) perennial pastures for reducing groundwater recharge and increasing out-of-season feed supply; iii) saltland pastures for increased productivity and profitability of saline land; and
iv) genetic resources and seed production of new pasture varieties.

The first stop will be a property in Meckering, 130km east of Perth, where we will discuss issues surrounding the role of perennial pastures in Mediterranean systems. Lucerne has been a key perennial species in this region. We then travel due east to Cunderdin to view a variety trial of aerial seeding annual pasture species, including biserrula, an entirely new species of pasture plant. Directly after this, we will have the opportunity to discuss with a local property owner how they are integrating pastures into a new farming system and the specific processes involved.

After lunch, we will be joined by Ed Barrett-Lennard and a local grower who will talk us through a Sustainable Grazing of Saline Land (SGSL) site in Tammin including issues of salinity, waterlogging and pasture options for salt affected lands. Finally, we return westwards, stopping in Muresk to view pasture management and cultivar trials.

Clinton Revell, Phil Nichols and Ed Barrett-Lennard currently work for the Department of Agriculture, WA based in South Perth. However this doesn’t stop them travelling miles across the wheatbelt to work with growers to integrate new pasture species into the farming system.

Tour 3: Value Adding Past the Farm Gate: The Lifecycle of a Barley Grain and a Fertiliser Granule

Tour Leader: Alan Meldrum

A choice of two half-day tours for those who are short of time.

Morning Tour
Follow the lifecycle of a barley grain on this exciting Perth city-based tour! The first stop will be to the Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH) Metro Grain centre. Here we will tour the grain receival centre and new lupin dehulling plant which has created new opportunities for value adding in WA. The next stop along the value adding chain is to Joe White Maltings where we will view barley transforming into premium malt. Finally, we visit the Swan Brewery where we will be able to sample the final product of the conversion of premium malt into beer. The bus will then return to the Parmelia Hilton for lunch.

Afternoon Tour
On this tour, we will visit CSBP’s fertiliser manufacturing and soil testing laboratories. CSBP is the largest supplier of fertiliser for agriculture in Western Australia. In addition to its extensive manufacturing plant, it also runs the largest soil analysis laboratory in the southern hemisphere. Here it conducts plant and soil analysis for all customers, not just CSBP clients.

This tour will highlight the critical role that fertiliser plays in farming the relatively infertile sandy soils of WA, and the way in which CSBP develops fertiliser products to match the production and technological developments of WA broadacre agriculture.

Alan Meldrum has recently joined Pulse Australia as its pulse development officer for WA and has a wide experience in Western Australia’s dryland grains industries.

Tour 4: Soils, Landscapes, and Production Systems: Exploring Diversity in Avon Valley Farming Systems

Tour Leaders:  Doug Abrecht, Geoff Russell

This tour explores medium and high rainfall mixed farming systems with particular emphasis on landscapes, soils and production systems. The farming systems are highly productive, mixed crop and pasture systems which produce grain, hay, meat and wool. There are also areas of horticulture on the western fringe of the zone.

The tour crosses the Darling scarp, travelling through horticultural areas, then water catchment and forests before arriving at the agricultural area west of Brookton. We will then travel north through high rainfall, agricultural landscapes to Beverley and York and visit the Muresk campus of Curtin University. The morning focuses on landscapes and production systems and the afternoon on innovative solutions to emerging problems in the farming system.

Tour 5: High rainfall farming systems tour: Increasing yields through better water management

Tour Leaders: Narelle Simpson, Ron McTaggart, Wal Anderson, Heping Zhang

This full day tour will take you through the beautiful Great Southern region into the high rainfall cropping zone of WA (> 450 mm) with over one million hectares ultimately suitable for cropping (wheat, barley, canola, lupins, oats) and an estimated potential to produce over six million tonnes of grain. This is the last frontier of cropping potential to be exploited, with increasing importance as the weather warms and the rainfall reduces due to climate change. Despite encouraging advances in recent years many challenges and opportunities remain in both research and farming.  Both of these will be illustrated during the tour with visits to CSIRO and DAWA research sites looking at resource capture and tactical nitrogen management, and with the experiences of local farmers who have moved strongly into cropping.

All tour leaders are experienced in the high rainfall area and active in the current research and extension efforts to manage the water, soil and plant resources in an interactive, profitable and co-operative way.