17 May 2007
The national Grain & Graze program is enlisting the nation's advisor-agronomists and farm management consultants in its drive to help mixed farmers increase their profitability and simultaneously better manage natural resources.
The program has begun organising workshops for advisors and consultants following research which identified these professionals as among the strongest influences on land management in Australia.
That finding is one of a number made by the rural specialist RM Consulting Group (RMCG) after it researched a range of rural social issues for the Grain & Graze program.
Another finding was that advisors' and consultants' influence on clients was the result of trust-based relationships.
Grain & Graze is a collaborative partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Land & Water Australia (LWA).
It had asked RMCG to find out what influences mixed farmers to change their farming systems, how they evaluate the financial implications of their decisions and what social factors they consider important in decision making.
RMCG partner, Nigel McGuckian and Grain & Graze Mallee Regional Coordinator, Zubair Shahzad, recently facilitated a workshop at Mildura for advisers from the NSW, Victorian and South Australian Mallee.
While the program aimed to tell participants more about Grain & Graze activities in the Mallee, Mr McGuckian also suggested they had vital roles in making sure the results of Grain & Graze research in the region reached the wider farming community.
Alistair Murdoch, a farmer as well as an agronomist with Agrivision Consultants in Swan Hill, said he had known about Grain & Graze - mainly through his association with Mallee Sustainable Farming - before he attended the recent project workshop in Mildura.
"My clients are mostly mixed-farmers, but they tend to be more committed to cropping - with the modern, no-till, conservation farming approach. Very few do not run livestock at all," Mr Murdoch said.
"Demographics are starting to take effect, with the general ageing population of farmers, and labour units have become very important. If you have bigger machinery you can keep the price of those labour units down.
"In a low rainfall area like this, the aim is to maximise grain yield with specific management for the highest yielding crop.
"Everyone aims to work a bit smarter now, with the idea of reducing the workload at least at some times of the year. That is what is driving any move to continuous cropping."
Mr Murdoch said he saw particular value in the research Grain & Graze was doing in the area of fodder cropping, where there was huge potential for mixed farms in the Mallee.
Most Mallee farms face a feed gap every year and any system that could provide feed earlier in the season would be great.
When a season has an early start like this one in 2007 - coming out of drought with virtually no paddock feed available and a similar situation in the fodder market - planting a couple of early cropping paddocks and using them to carry stock through could be an option.
Tim Pilkington is an advisor with Swan Hill Chemicals at Manangatang and he said he would be looking forward to future data from the Grain & Graze research that was discussed at the Mildura workshop.
His clients were mostly mixed farmers, again with only a few continuous croppers, and cropping in his district was generally carried out to a higher standard than the livestock side of most enterprises.
Farmers needed options for rotation with cereals, both to improve feed available for sheep but also for general farming issues like weed control.
"It was good to learn what Grain & Graze is trying to do in our low rainfall area. I am looking forward to seeing the data - getting something to run with," Mr Pilkington said.
For further information about Grain & Graze in the Mallee Region, contact Regional Coordinator, Zubair Shahzad on 03 5021 9103 or visit www.grainandgraze.com.au.
For more information about Grain & Graze's National Social Research Project, contact Nigel McGuckian, RM Consulting Group, on 03 54414821 or nigelm@rmcg.com.au.
The results of RMCG's survey work - probably the most intensive of its type ever carried out in Australia - are revealed in seven discussion papers grouped together as "Social Dimensions of Managing Mixed Farming Systems". These papers can be viewed at www.grainandgraze.com.au and click on 'Research Projects' > 'Social Influences' > 'Grain & Graze Discussion Papers Nov 06'.
Grain & Graze Regional Coordinators
Avon Region - Linda Leonard - 08 9690 2191
Border Rivers Region - Rachel Charles - 07 4671 7900
Central West/Lachlan Region - Jodie Dean - 02 6895 1015
Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins Region - Cam Nicholson - 03 5258 3860
Eyre Peninsula Region - Alison Frischke - 08 8680 6223
Mallee Region - Zubair Shahzad - 03 5021 9103
Maranoa/Balonne Region - Stephen Ginns - 07 4620 8122
Murrumbidgee Region - Katrina Sait - 02 6924 4633
Northern Agricultural Region - Philip Barrett-Lennard - 08 94750753
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