For some of BCG’s inaugural farmer-members, Rob Velthuis’s contribution is considered essential to the organisation’s success.
Working as a chemical representative for Dupont at the time, the reason for his decision to get involved was simple.
“Will it work?” he asked.
“Weeds were ‘number one’ in cereals so with wheat and barley being the two main crops sown in the Mallee, it made sense to investigate more,” he added.
As a Dupont representative with field trial experience, Rob felt he could support the Birchip-based FM500 discussion group of farmers who were concerned about the decline in research services that were applicable to their southern Mallee farming systems.
“I felt I could make a difference to people in the Mallee. I could see what some of the past ‘Agronomy Giants’ had done in their time and I thought I had enough to contribute to help others,” he said.
“Someone suggested”
Rob attended one of the FM500 discussion group meetings, because Dupont were supporters, at John and Judy Jones’ Curyo property in 1992/3. He recalls the group wondered if they could take matters into their own hands.
“Someone suggested: ‘How about we put some plots down?’” he recalls.
Then another person asked, “how could we do that?”
Rob had experience in trial development, operations and communications from previous roles at the Mallee Research Station and said, “I do know about that and I have lots of experience.”
He offered to assist in running a trial and in 1993, the first Birchip Cropping Demonstration Sites (BCDS) ‘trial’ (more a demonstration) showcased 70 herbicides over 10 crop-types to investigate crop safety and herbicide efficacy.
And, as they say in the classics, the rest is history.
“On the shoulders of agronomy giants”
Rob’s interest in applied research on farm developed well before joining BCG or the Birchip Cropping Demonstration Sites (BCDS) as it was first named.
He started his career, as a La Trobe University Graduate, at the Victorian Wheat Research Institute in Horsham. Bill Gardner was his boss; a man Rob considers one of the many ‘giants of agriculture’ he was privileged to work with. ‘We worked on increasing crop production in the south-west of Victoria – a very successful research program resulting in a huge increase in cropping in the then ‘sheep zone’.
His second research job in the Mallee was at the Walpeup Research Station. Rob said it was “a marvellous place” where he learned the technical trade of plot trial management under John Griffiths’ guidance (“another of the great agronomists” Rob says) and a group of committed researchers.
“Anything I’ve done in the past was based on those guy’s work,” he said.
Work comprised mainly of wheat and barley research with some lupin and canola sown out in the back paddocks but in 1983 he put in the first Victorian lentil plots that were taken through to harvest.
Rob also witnessed first-hand the power of a good Mallee Research Station field day at a pre-harvest field day in October which attracted approximately 1000 farmers.
“The glory years of growing crops”
The period from 1985 to 1995 saw huge advances in crop growing development. New herbicide tools enabled growers to rotate crops including peas and canola and new tillage methods saw precious topsoil preserved.
“Farmers were interested in good methods of farming practices back then but they didn’t have the tools. The tools came along as herbicides – believe it or not.”
A small number of farmers were direct drilling and rotating legume crops in the mid-eighties and this number increased rapidly over the same period, however herbicide resistance started to become a big issue. “We started recommending more sustainable methods of weed control incorporating non-herbicide methods.”
In 1986, Rob accepted the role with Dupont and moved to Horsham.
“In my first three or four years working with the Birchip growers, I spent half my time working on trials at Birchip with DuPont’s support.”
Rob was also a regular presenter at BCDS field days. He presented at the first BCDS field days on the herbicide work, for Dupont and other chemical company products, and Nigel Boddinar from Pivot spoke about the nutrition demonstrations.
“Looking, seeing, talking and connecting”
Rob’s contribution was more than just labour and expertise, he used his networks to promote, connect and create leverage.
“My role was to act an enzyme,” he said.
Rob also assisted in raising BCG’s profile to a national level when he suggested an ABC TV journalist feature the group on Landline.
“In 1993, I ran into Pip Courtney at the Hamilton Sheep Vention and invited her to come up to Birchip and see what we had done,” he said. A feature segment resulted not long after.
By the second field day, Rob said farmers were reporting benefits not limited to their farming system.
“I remember farmers coming up to me and at the second field day and saying ‘this is wonderful because you’ve connected me with people I haven’t seen for a long time’. They were seeing each other, but in a different context,” he said.
“It is exciting”
Fast-forward to 2019 and Rob is Vice President of the Victorian Division of The Ag Institute Australia and helps mentor young graduates and is involved with Xeron, his own biotechnology company who consults to agricultural universities in Australia. His is philosophical about the changes he’s seen.
“There weren’t very many young people in farming back in 1993, however now I see many enthusiastic young people on farms and contributing to small town communities,” he said.
“The number of agricultural consultants has also increased rapidly in the 1990’s due to the rapid increase in the complexity of decision making on farms.”
“With a new batch of technologies I can see that we need a generation of very clever farm operators.”
Rob says from 1993 to 2005 there was an exodus of agronomists out of Landmark and Elders and the number of private consultants numbers went up. “Before that, Peter Ridge was only one – another agronomy giant,” he said.
In terms of current trends, he sees a blockage to getting agronomists into agriculture and research into country areas. “In the 1980’s the Victorian Agricultural Department supported young research agronomists working directly with farmers. I’m not suggesting they return to this era, I see the Birchip Cropping Group filling this gap and possibly groups of local growers employing a clever young junior agronomist.”
The number of farming enterprises is decreasing all the time. “There might be one farm, but two or more families associated with it,” he said, adding “BCG will become more critical to their operations.”
Rob feels farmers are sensing the changes in consumer demands too, citing glyphosate and genetically modified organisms discussions.
“Organic and conventional food producers can learn from each other. I believe our current broadacre farmers are interested in moving toward more sustainably intensifying their agricultural systems. I can’t see how a typical 50 square kilometre farm can grow crops without herbicide tools like glyphosate and I can see gene edited crops becoming more important.”
“In the next 30 years there will be massive changes,” he said.
“It’s the tools farmers need to use that will be important.”
And it was the search for tools that led to the start of BCG; “It’s amazing to look back on 26 years of BCG,” Rob said. “I couldn’t have imagined that what we started back in a Mallee paddock all those years ago would grow into what it is today.”
Leave a lasting legacy for the future of broadacre farming and by donating to the BCG Research Account. Donations are tax deductible and managed by the BCG Research Committee to ensure the long-term benefits for farmers to continue to grow. For further information, please contact the BCG on 03 5492 2787.
