Tom Batters has recently completed his Masters of Agricultural Science at the University of Melbourne and is now working in the 18-month DEDJTR graduate research agronomy program. He will spend six months working with BCG, six months with AGRIvision Consultants in Swan Hill and six months with seasonal risk agronomist Dale Grey at DEDJTR.
My first few weeks at BCG have been great with plenty of variability and lots going on.
I started with the monotonous, yet important task of weighing seeds for sowing and have since been involved in sowing and irrigating the first trials for 2017 in Curyo and Longerenong.
The scale on which seed was sown is nothing like what I am used to on my family’s mixed farm at St. Arnaud. The 2m BCG seeder would have taken a week to sow the paddock, but I soon realised we were only sowing 7m long strips, I had a bit to learn!
Another concept I wasn’t familiar with was that of irrigating after sowing in what is a dryland cropping region. Although spending a day irrigating was almost like watching grass grow, I soon understood the importance of irrigating the GRDC-funded long season wheat trial I had helped sow.
The end of my first week was spent spraying out Bindii to see what chemicals are effective at sterilising Bindii seeds. Additionally, I was assessing how effective chemicals had been on Heliotrope from a previous week’s trial, and I was paying particularly close attention to the brews being used on the Bindii having already stepped on a few in the backyard at home.
I have also had the opportunity to be travelling around the Mallee carrying out soil sampling for farmers, and, no doubt the results will be eagerly anticipated and will likely form the basis of many important decision in 2017.Â
Overall my first taste of Birchip has been a far cry from the last seven years that I have spent in Melbourne studying, working and playing cricket but it is good to be back closer to my farming roots.
The highlight has obviously been getting stuck into a piece of vanilla slice at the bakery as well as getting seeing the vast flat plains of the Mallee.
I am looking forward to the opportunities that are in front of me at BCG and can’t wait to see what lies ahead.Â
