French student Sebastien Sester is undertaking a six month practice-orientated internship at BCG, examining agronomic and farming systems research as part of his Masters of Science at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
As part of his work experience Sebastien is providing fortnightly updates to his course supervisor. These updates also provide a valuable international perspective to BCG and our members.
Sebastien’s report from the past fortnight (June 16-30) follows:
Over the past two week’s I have been sowing ‘late’ time of sowing trials, spraying herbicides, carrying out emergence or weeds counts and helping with crop assessments. I also attended a farmer group meeting (GAPP) and a research presentation.
GAPP meetings are organised by BCG in collaboration with the State Government, and usually occur four times a year. GAPP stands for Growth Adoption Production Profit. It aims to bring growers together share ideas about how to increase on-farm production in ways that also maintain profitability.
GAPP groups are divided by locations, with as many as eight groups spread throughout the Wimmera and the Mallee. Every meeting is organised by one or two BCG employees, who act as facilitator during the meeting. Agronomists, advisors, climate experts, or other people with expertise in the different domains of agronomy are invited as guest speakers.
A meeting usually has five to 15 attendees. Rather than having speakers only giving a presentation, the meetings are pro-active and ever participant is welcome to ask questions or to start a discussion. As a consequence, the meetings are very informal and very pleasant.
At the meeting I attended, farmers were first asked to give their thoughts about the season to-date. What came out is that growers are almost done with sowing and that they are satisfied with already emerged crops. A few mentioned weed problems or patchy crop emergence on poorer soils, but timely rainfall and warm temperatures made the crops emerge quite quickly. Some were worried about crops being too advanced, as it might increase frost risk later in the season.
Farmers are now busy spraying, repairing machinery and ‘waiting’ for crops to grow. Spreading fertilisers (top-dressing) is the next step for most.
When it comes to buying a piece of land or taking over a farm, the guest speaker advised farmers to consider aspects like history, market, demand, overheads and what you need to know to strategically improve the business.
While weather appears to be a clear uncertainty for farm businesses, costs are a clear certainty.
The agronomist gave an estimate of the costs on a farm: machinery and repairs ($68/ha), labour ($50/ha), chemicals ($48/ha), financials ($47/ha), fertilisers ($41/ha), overhead ($32/ha) and fuel ($27/ha). He said that while chemicals and fertilisers have more or less the same costs, it is easier to reduce chemicals costs than fertiliser costs. Indeed, farmers roughly use five to ten different fertilisers, but they use up to 50 different chemicals, making it easier to change or find alternatives.
The speaker also recommended growers compare farms on a $/ha basis rather than by t/ha, as it gives a better overview of the actual situation.
According to a grower, another certainty is that “world population is increasing, and that there is an increasing need for food”, which is a good thing for a farmer.
It was interesting to see that local farmers are aware of the globalisation of the food chain. Nevertheless, when asked where the grain goes when it leaves the farm, farmers were not exactly aware of its destination and what it will be used for. It also does not really matter for them, as long as they receive a good price for it.
Invited as guest speaker, a climate expert gave a forecast overview. Different models predict an IOD- and a La Nina year, which means higher than average chances of rainfall for the southern part of Australia. A negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) phenomenon induces more rain coming from the north west (evaporation from the Indian Ocean), while the La Nina effect brings rainfall from the north east (evaporation form the Pacific Ocean).
Although it is primed to be a La Nina/IOD- year, the expert said it does not necessarily mean that it will be, as there is always room for error and variation.
Based on these predictions, the agronomist asked the growers if they have any wet year plan. Farmers intend to buy a fair bit of urea, and to top-dress soon.
Since yields are expected to be higher this year, farmers think the grain market price will be lower. This is a concern for European farmers too, as prices always drop when Australian farmers have a good year.
At the end of the meeting, a crop tour was organised during which farmers were taught how to perform easy assessments that can be done on farm. These included: sowing depth measurements, crop density counts, weed density counts, development stages assessment, disease/pest identification. Quite surprisingly, not all farmers actually do these tests on their farms and prefer using assumed sowing rates/crop densities rather than calculating them.
I think that these meetings are very valuable for growers because they offer them the possibility to talk and to exchange information with their colleagues – something they would not naturally do. It also offers them a chance to learn about some specific agronomic or financial issues. In the meantime, it gives BCG a chance to communicate and to reach new members.
In the last weeks, a new pest outbreak occurred in Australia. Indeed, the Russian Wheat Aphid (Diruaphis noxia) has been spotted for the first time in southern Australian paddocks.
Australia was the last cereal-producing country to be affected by this aphid. Farmers and agronomists are worried, as it represents a new threat for the Australian grain industry.
Nevertheless, it appears that local indigenous predators are able to control the RWA. Besides, the aphid also has a low fertility rate, with an average of 70 live births per life cycle. This is a relatively low number in comparison to the green peach aphid which has anywhere from 100 to 1000 live births.
Cold temperatures and approaching winter will slow down its spread too. It is concerning to see that, despite strong quarantine and border protection measures for imports of agricultural goods, unwanted pests still make their way to Australia.
More of Sebastien’s reports can be found here.