BCG Trials Review Day
The BCG Trials Review Day is a highly-valued event on the BCG calendar, exclusively hosted for our members. This day arises so we can disseminate and explain research trial results from the previous season. Attendance can produce long-term rewards
for your farm business. BCG prides itself on being the first to release research results thus allowing timely, important on-farm decisions to be made by our farmers across the region.
Held in February, Trials Review features a number of guest speakers, some of whom are international. Presentations 
identify significant outcomes of trials and discuss relevant issues, challenges and innovations. In addition to presentations there are panel discussions, question and answer sessions and a myth busting scenario.
At Trials Review, the Season Research Results Summary booklet handbook is launched and issued to our members. This contains the results and conclusions of the majority of trials BCG conducts throughout the year: it is an informative publication to help plan subsequent seasons. The day concludes with refreshments.
Trials Review Day 2012
Planning for 2012
How to manage a dry start to the cropping season is expected to be a hot topic at BCG’s Trials Review day this Friday.
According to BCG, recent dry conditions and a rapidly diminishing soil moisture profile are two factors motivating grain growers in the Wimmera and Mallee to rethink their crop rotations for the 2012 season.
And with one consequence of the dry start likely to be a reduction in the amount of canola grown this year, farmers are encouraged to attend the Trials Review day for information on adapting rotation plans and options for alternative break crops.
BCG research agronomist Simon Craig said growers were facing vastly different conditions to what they encountered in 2011.
He said unlike this time last year – when the soil profile was full – there is currently very little plant available moisture stored in the soil.
“It’s a whole new year and a whole different scenario,” he said.
At the Birchip Community Leisure Centre this Friday, Mr Craig will join a high profile line-up of Australian and international crop specialists booked to talk about recent research findings and how farmers can apply this knowledge to get the most out of the season ahead.
Among them is CSIRO research scientist Dr James Hunt who will talk about the performance of break crops in the Mallee including the pros and cons of including them in a rotation.
Also topical will be an address by Mr Craig where he will present the results from five years of canola and wheat variety trials in the Wimmera and Mallee.
Keynote speaker is Canadian weed management and transgenic crop specialist Dr Linda Hall who will discuss integrated weed management.
Dr Hall will provide an international perspective on genetically modified (GM) canola, integrating herbicide resistance and weed management.
Other topics to be covered – including increasing protein with late nitrogen applications, stem rust and leaf rust management – have been selected to help farmers make informed on-farm decisions this season and beyond.
BCG’s Trials Review is a members only event. Registration is from 8.15am with presentations to kick off at 9am sharp. Non-members wanting to attend are invited to take out a BCG membership prior to or on the day.
For more information phone BCG on 5492 2787 or visit www.bcg.org.au.
BCG to release 2012 trials results
BCG will present its results and key findings from the 2011 trials to members at Birchip Community Leisure Centre on Friday, February 17.
Moisture conservation, summer weed control, five years of wheat variety research, disease management, the role of GM canola for weed management and herbicide resistance and livestock in no-till systems will be some of the principal topics discussed at BCG’s members only Trials Review Day.
Leading Canadian weed management and transgenic crop specialist, Dr Linda Hall, will be the key note speaker at this year’s event. She will provide an international perspective on genetically modified (GM) canola, integrating herbicide resistance and weed management.
Dr Hall grew up on a small mixed farm in southern Alberta but has a long association with Australian cropping. She has worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Steve Powles in Adelaide, as an extension resource with BCG and as an occasional guest speaker for the GRDC.
CSIRO’s Dr James Hunt will also speak at the review day also. He will present exciting results from the third year of the five-year Water Use Efficiency (WUE) project at Hopetoun. Members will hear about some excellent outcomes from the summer weed control and moisture conservation trials, in particular, significant differences in plots where summer weeds were controlled.
The day will conclude with one of BCG’s most popular sessions – myth busters. During this session Harm van Rees and Simon Craig will bust myths, drawing on some of the results from members’ trials from across the Wimmera and Mallee.
Morning tea and registration is from 8:15am and results sessions will start at 9.00am sharp. This event is for BCG members only; farmers are encouraged to become BCG members before the day.
BCG looks forward to welcoming members at the Birchip Community Leisure Centre on Friday, February 17.
For more information phone (03) 5492 2787 or visit www.bcg.org.au.
2012 Agenda
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