Women from across the Wimmera Mallee came to Birchip this week to participate in BCG’s second Women’s Agronomy Group meeting of the year. A range of agricultural topics were covered in the interactive workshop including understanding climate indicators, crop growth stages and herbicide resistance.
De-Anne Price from DPI Horsham led the discussion on climate indicators through an interactive game. During the presentation participants answered questions on a console. This allowed De-Anne to focus on the group’s specific knowledge base, ensuring that the women present fully understood different climate indicators used to make farming decisions and why predictions can differ.
Before a relaxing lunch, BCG’s Dr Cherie Reilly highlighted the importance of crop growth stages. Providing each woman with two cereal seedlings, Cherie showed participants how to monitor crops growth stages, giving everyone a valuable farming skill. Simon Schlitz, Nufarm’s Mallee Territory Manager, contributed to the discussion with his fungicide usage expertise.
After lunch, Dr Michael Walsh from BCG educated participants on how crops develop herbicide resistance either via mutation (targeted) or enzyme (non-targeted). Michael explained the science using a baseball glove, bat and ball. His presentation proved to be a lot of fun and provided useful take home messages.
The next Women’s Agronomy Group meeting will be held on Thursday 20 August and is open to all women associated with farming in our region.
