Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Harm van Rees.

Harm’s story starts in the Netherlands where he was raised until he was 14. Then his father got an engineering job in Australia, bringing the family with him. When his dad got another job back in the UK, Harm was not ready to leave. He studied science and biochemistry which took him all around the world, and when he got back to Australia, he headed to Victoria’s high country to study cattle grazing, but that’s only the beginning. Harm was a touchstone for no till farming in the 1990s and won a GRDC Recognising and Rewarding Excellence Award in 2020 which saw him seek new insights into attitudes towards, and usage of, glyphosate around the world.

GRDC in Conversation is a limited series of the GRDC Podcast. It features in depth, long-form interviews with growers and other experts in the grains industry. It aims to help growers explore research outcomes and ideas through a different perspective.

Interviewer Oli Le Lievre – presenter of Humans of Agriculture – weaves a story not just about the technical innovations but the expertise, history and personal background, influences and motivation of each guest. 

GRDC Project Code: HOA2202-001SAX

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It’s estimated the Australian grains industry loses more than $350 million a year – due to insects. 

GRDC has invested in the Australian Grains Pest Innovation Program (AGPIP) a joint initiative with the University of Melbourne and Cesar Australia – set up to tackle pest management problems in the grains industry. 

More novel approaches and solutions pest control are needed – Associate Professor Paul Umina from Cesar Australia and the University of Melbourne – provided an update on the ground-breaking research currently underway.

Download the transcript for this episode

Contact:

Associate Professor Paul Umina 

Cesar Australia

University of Melbourne

[email protected]

More Information:

GroundCover Article – Authority warns of growing insecticide resistance risk

Cesar Australia – The Australian Grains Pest Innovation Program (AGPIP)

Project Code: UOM1906-002RTX 

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Sally Maguire looks at ammonia volatilisation in depth with Associate Professor Louise Barton from the University of WA. They discuss the extended findings from a 14 month trial study and the implications for crop productivity and nitrogen use efficiency. 

Contact:

Louise Barton

University of WA

Email: [email protected]

More Information:

GroundCover article - Assessing gaseous nitrogen loss from WA crop systems

Project Code: UWA2202-001RTX

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Deborah Bishop catches up with spray application specialist, Bill Campbell at the GRDC Western update, to discuss the awareness and understanding of making good weed spraying decisions. 

Contact:

Bill Campbell Consulting 

[email protected]

More Information:

GRDC Media Release – How to get the most from your spraying program

Project Code: BCC1910-001SAX 

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Deborah Bishop interviews Dr. Elizabeth Petersen from the University of Western Australia about the results from a survey of four hundred West Australian grain producers. They discuss the role of agronomics, the process involved with making fertiliser decisions and strategies implemented to maximise yield potential. 

Contact:

Dr Elizabeth Petersen

Principal Applied Economist, Advanced Choice Economics P/L 

Senior Research Fellow, University of Queensland 

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia 

email: [email protected] 

Craig Scanlon

Senior Research Scientist, DPIRD 

email: [email protected] 

More Information:

GroundCover Article – Agronomy still top priority for nitrogen fertiliser decisions

Agronomic factors are the dominant influence on nitrogen fertilizer strategies in dryland cropping systems

Project Code: UWA1801-002RTX  

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Sally Maguire interviews experts at the 2023 GRDC Grains research update held in Wagga Wagga. They discuss the latest advice for the season ahead. These experts include:

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Deborah Bishop interviews Richard Bell from Murdoch University (SoilWest Alliance), to discuss widespread Potassium deficiencies in soils and report on the highly successful collaboration between GRDC, DPIRD, SoilsWest, Murdoch University, Summit Fertilisers and CSBP Fertilisers and key research findings for growers and advisors from a long-term field trial in Western Australia, investigating how to maximise profit and efficiency from potassium fertiliser. 

Contact:

Richard Bell, Murdoch University (SoilsWest Alliance) 

[email protected]

Project Code: UMU1801-006RTX

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Pre-emergent herbicide applications at seeding. What to apply? How? And what chemicals really don’t get along well together in the spray tank? There is a lot to know as growers approach the 2023 season. 

Across the southern region, the mild and wet season last year means there’s a mighty bank of weed seeds just waiting to rear their ugly heads. There’s a range of options for pre-emergent herbicide applications, and we spoke to Southern Extension Officer with WeedSmart Chris Davey likes to get some tips on using pre-emergent herbicides.

Contact:

Chris Davey 

Agriservices Agronomist 

chris@ypag.com.au

More Information:

Pre-emergent herbicides fact sheet

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Welcome to the first podcast in our new limited series focusing on Nutrition in the West. Each Friday for the next four weeks, we’ll release an additional GRDC podcast covering nutrition topics specifically for Western Australia, as growers gear up for seeding 2023.

The knowledge used to guide phosphorus management in WA agriculture has its origins in field research from 20 to 60 years ago. This long term private-public partnership study, part of a large crop nutrition project, helps provide up-to-date guidelines by revealing the key influences of wheat response to P fertiliser in current cropping systems. 

We caught up with Senior Research Scientist Craig Scanlon from WA’s Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development about what’s driving and influencing yield response to phosphorous fertiliser in current cropping systems – which importantly – now includes climate - in the equation. 

Contact:

Craig Scanlan, Senior Research Scientist – DPIRD

[email protected]

More Information:

Optimising fertiliser application – what level of precision can we achieve?

Project Code: UMU1801-006RTX

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Forecasting how optimal flowering windows and crop yields will be impacted by the warming climate, and what growers can do about it, has been unexplored – until now. A new economics project under the Optimising Irrigated Grains Initiative, led by Associate Professor Matt Harrison from University of Tasmania, has brought together researchers, farming groups, and industry organisations to compare and predict optimal flowering windows to increase yields.  

It’s the first time contemporary genotypes have been compared across rainfed vs irrigated crops to predict current and future crop flowering windows across several growing regions using real weather and field trial data. 

The project’s focus on real world testing and grower engagement has resulted in a free online tool, Water Can Profit, that calculates farm inputs and helps growers make more profitable decisions. 

Contact: 

Matthew Harrison 

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania 

Email: [email protected] 

More Information: 

WaterCanProfit main website

Details on the WaterCanProfit App 

Here is the hint for installation: 

The WaterCanProfit app version 1.2.3(8) is now available for both Android and iOS. Users can download and install the app on their mobile devices to begin using it immediately. We highly recommend downloading the app using the link provided, so that users can receive email notifications about future updates. 

We provide a 'User manual' WaterCan_User_Manual1.1.0.pdf to help with your installation and testing of the app (As we still update the software based on user feedback, the instruction may not be fully consistent and updated to date). You can also check GRDC YouTube channel where we present the 5 functions of the app. 

Project Code: UOT1906-002RTX

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