AgLife – November 27, 2019 edition

November 27, 2019

Happy harvest Jung farmer Gavin Puls and his son Cooper show off this season’s lentil crop at a Dooen North paddock. Growers across the Wimmera are in the middle of harvest, and early indications are that this season’s crop is ‘above average’. Story, page 35.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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Harvest rolls in from the south 95 Nelson Street, Nhill CALL 03 5391 2106

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BY COLIN MacGILLIVRAY

immera and southern Mallee farmers in the midst of harvest believe this season’s crop is shaping up as one of the best in recent years.

The region’s growers have mostly begun harvest during the past two weeks and some have reported strong yields.

Jung farmer Gavin Puls said he was harvesting hurricane lentils and would begin to harvest a barley crop next week.

He said he anticipated starting a wheat harvest after two weeks on barley and would aim to finish at about the end of the year.

He said all indications were that this year’s crop was a good one.

“Around the Wimmera it’s looking pretty good. The Mallee is probably a little bit down,” he said.

“Things are looking great around the paddocks – the yields are quite handy, and the prices are pretty good as well, so I can’t complain at all.

“It’s going to be quite a good year for the farmers, which should help peg back a few of the ordinary ones we’ve had before this.

MAKING A START: Lentil harvest is in full swing in Gavin Puls’ Dooen North paddock.

“We should be able to give the bank and the

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER taxman a bit back, and there’ll be a bit left for

the town hopefully.” Grain storage company Viterra’s Dooen manager Andrew Brown said the site had received its first load of barley on November 12 and had subsequently received loads of lentils, barley and canola.

He said the outlook was generally positive for the region.

“We are in constant communication with growers regarding yield and quality and growers are expecting an above-average year,” he said.

“Feedback from growers is that they are very pleased with the quality and yield of barley and canola.

“Canola started being delivered last week.

The first deliveries came from the south of Horsham rather than the north, which is where we generally see the first loads of canola come from.

“The quality of lentils has also been good. We normally see harvest deliveries continue into our Dooen site through to mid-January depending on weather conditions.

“We will continue to work closely with growers throughout this time to ensure we are providing them with a valuable and efficient service.”

Agriculture Minister checks on electronic system Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes has used a visit to the Wimmera to see a sheep and goat electronic identification system in action at Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange.

Ms Symes confirmed the state’s transition to the electronic identification system, designed to make Victoria’s livestock industry more innovative and efficient, was almost complete.

Horsham saleyards is celebrating 20 years of operation this year and, as the fourth largest lamb market in Victoria and processing 600,000 sheep a year, has been a leader in applying the technology and creating its own efficiencies.

Victoria started its transition to mandatory electronic identification for sheep and goats on January 1, 2017.

Changes across the supply chain, from on-farm tagging to scanning and data processing at saleyards and abattoirs, has led to advances in efficiency and data integrity.

The reform has improved the state’s ability to trace sheep and goats, leading to high levels of consumer confidence and access to export markets.

In 2017-18, Victoria exported $1.4-billion in sheep meat and $2.1-billion in wool, demonstrating the role the sheep industry played in regional and rural Victorian communities as well as the nation overall.

The State Government, in is 201920 budget also invested $142.5-million to boost Victoria’s biosecurity system, representing the largest investment of its type in the state’s history.

Ms Symes said on her visit to Horsham that traceability underpinned Victoria’s biosecurity system.

“Having a world-class livestock-identification system gives Victoria’s trading partners confidence in our secure agriculture industry, as well as strengthening our ability to trace diseases and keep Victoria consumers safe in the event on an exotic disease outbreak,” she said.

“Our innovations and traceability wouldn’t be possible without our industry partners – including Meat and Livestock Australia, who have invested in this change with us and continue to support the benefits of keeping Victoria at the forefront of this technology.”

MINISTER VISITS: Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes, right, inspects a sheep and goat electronic identification system with Horsham mayor Mark Radford, left, and Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange manager Paul Christopher.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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Wimmera farmers raise concerns 95 Nelson Street, Nhill CALL 03 5391 2106

BY COLIN MacGILLIVRAY

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ictorian Farmers Federation Wimmera Branch members are aiming to discuss a host of issues raised at a meeting earlier this month with Member for Mallee Anne Webster and Regional Roads Victoria.

Members discussed a range of issues at the meeting on November 4, the most pressing of which was a lack of telecommunications infrastructure necessary to pay employees using a web-based Superannuation Clearing House service.

Branch president Graeme Maher said the group would seek a meeting with Dr Webster in the new year to discuss their concerns about the state of telecommunications infrastructure in the region.

Mr Maher said members had raised other concerns during the meeting that the group would look to take further.

He said farmers were anxious about a new State Government industrial manslaughter law introduced to parliament last month.

He said the law put undue pressure on employers and gave too many investigatory powers to WorkSafe.

“As I understand it, if you take a work car to the races and have too much to drink and have an accident and someone dies in that accident, the person in charge of your office is then liable for industrial manslaughter with up to a 20-year prison term because you were an employee who did the wrong thing,” he said.

“If an employee does something wrong, the employer is liable.

“The investigations will be carried out by WorkSafe, who are entitled to come in and go through all your notes and all your books without any permission.

“The police need to get search war-

rants and all the rest of it, but WorkSafe does not have that requirement and can walk in and demand everything. That is truly scary.

“Imagine if a 15-year-old son on a farm pinches a motorbike, has an accident and dies. His father is then charged with industrial manslaughter and may go to jail for 20 years.

“That leaves a wife without a child and without a husband.”

Mr Maher said many of the members’ other concerns related to roads in the region.

“The number and size of the trucks is ever-increasing and some of the intersections are not built to cater for them,” he said.

“If you’re turning right down Golf Course Road in Horsham, you’ve got to wait for two lanes of traffic to clear to cross it with a B-double. That is a recipe for disaster.

“Then you look at Shannon Brothers

opposite O’Connors on the Western Highway and there is no allocation for large vehicles to turn down there.

“If a train is coming, a vehicle just has to wait on the highway.

“There is a requirement for some serious big-picture planning on transport movement around Horsham.

“As people who drive trucks, we’re really worried about where that is heading.”

Mr Maher said the group was due to meet with Regional Roads Victoria to discuss its concerns but was doubtful of a satisfactory outcome.

“We have pencilled in an agreement with Regional Roads Victoria for our next meeting, but they are usually hamstrung,” he said.

“They’ll come along and say, ‘we’ve listened to you, we acknowledge your problems, but we haven’t got any money’.”

Mr Maher said other road-related

VFF’s ports pricing call

Sowing guide released Grains Research and Development Corporation, GRDC, has released a 2020 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide to support growers with their variety choices ahead of next year’s sowing programs.

The guide, available at website bit.ly/2O8jLoh and arriving soon in growers’ letter boxes, was published by GRDC in partnership with Agriculture Victoria.

GRDC’s National Variety Trials, NVT, south regional manager Rob Wheeler said the publication provided the most up-to-date information on disease resistance ratings and variety performance at a time when growers were planning their seed requirements for 2020.

“The Victorian Crop Sowing Guide outlines information on current varieties of the major winter crops grown in Victoria,” he said.

“The publication prompts growers to ask whether they are growing the best variety for their location, environment and farming system.

“Growers are encouraged to use the summary as a guide for discussion with their consultants, ad-

visers and marketing agents.” Mr Wheeler said the majority of grain yield and quality data provided in the summary was sourced from a GRDC NVT program of comparative crop variety testing, with data from some breeding trials added to the information available.

“Results from the NVT program are also used by pathologists to determine disease resistance ratings presented in the Victorian Crop Sowing Guide. It is important that growers check the disease resistance ratings each year for any changes from the previous season,” he said.

“Overall, the summary brings together NVT data from the previous five seasons, long-term multi-environment trial yield predictions, disease ratings, quality data and agronomic information.”

The latest 2019 NVT data will be available early in 2020 via the NVT Online website at www. nvtonline.com.au.

The 2020 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide contains some new varieties for growers’ consideration.

frustrations included licencing requirements for driving telehandlers.

“VicRoads struggles to find a category for them, so the rules as they stand require you to have a crane licence to drive them, which is a three-day course and costs quite a lot of money,” he said.

“If you don’t have that licence and something goes wrong, you’re liable.

“So everyone who drives a telehandler at the moment is required to have a crane licence, which is just ridiculous.”

Mr Maher said another point raised was the stalling of the State Government’s Murray Basin Rail Project after it ran out of money.

The meeting was addressed by guest speaker Simon McNair, a grain growers’ advocate who told members about the importance of checking who they sell their grain to and signing contracts.

NEW GUIDE: GRDC’s NVT south regional manager Rob Wheeler says a new Victorian Crop Sowing Guide provides the most up-to-date information on disease resistance ratings and variety performance at a time when growers are planning their seed requirements for 2020. Picture: GRDC

Victorian Farmers Federation’s Grains Group has called for the State Government to extend the Essential Services Commission’s oversight of port rents to include access and pricing.

It believes such a move would help address surging port infrastructure charges at the Port of Melbourne.

Infrastructure charges at the port have increased by more than 2000 percent in the past two years and port operator DP World recently announced it would further increase infrastructure charges again next year.

VFF Grains Group president Ashley Fraser said the skyrocketing charges were hitting farmers hard.

“Agricultural goods make up approximately 43 percent of all containerised exports from the Port of Melbourne,” he said.

“When stevedores hike up prices, the burden is passed up the supply chain and it is ultimately farmers who bear the brunt of it. We can’t just pass these costs onto consumers.”

Mr Fraser said estimates were that port infrastructure charges cost the average farmer producing export hay about $8000 a year in lost revenue.

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Dunsford now a doctor

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orsham’s Grains Innovation Park has another doctor on its staff after Agriculture Victoria research scientist Katherine Dunsford was officially awarded a PhD.

The title of Dr Dunsford’s PhD research was ‘Understanding the causes of poor grain yield responses of wheat to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers’.

Since 2014 she has been investigating why nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers applied to crops do not always result in a yield benefit.

She estimated nitrogen mineralisation in south-east Australian cereal crops and identified several soil-testing methods for predicting in-crop mineral nitrogen supply, during her research, which she said could be useful when formulating nitrogen budgets.

Horsham colleagues celebrated the awarding of Dr Dunsford’s PhD earlier this month.

Her PhD supervisor, Professor Roger Armstrong, said her research had provided a new understanding of issues affecting the profitability of grain growers.

“The research showed the importance of soil phosphorus and water supply in explaining the decline in crop response to phosphorus fertiliser,” he said.

NEW DOCTOR: Horsham’s Grains Innovation Park research scientist Katherine Dunsford was awarded a PhD for her investigation into nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers.

Dr Dunsford described the five years she spent on her research as challenging but rewarding.

“Undertaking a PhD not only taught me about developing, conducting and writing up experiments, but I have also gained a range of personal skills, such as having confidence in my own judgement, prioritising and how to be more effective in my day to day activities,” she said.

“Being located here at Horsham

was advantageous because I had access to a range of resources, equipment and people, but was also able to maintain a connection to the farming community.”

Professor Armstrong, an Agriculture Victoria senior research scientist, said Dr Dunsford’s desire to help grain growers and rural communities was admirable.

“She is a highly dedicated young scientist and it has been a pleasure to see her grow from a young

graduate to a highly valued member of the Agriculture Victoria soil science team and the broader southern Australian soil science network,” he said.

Dr Dunsford received her PhD from LaTrobe University’s School of Life Sciences.

She is currently working on a range of soil and crop-nutrition research projects for Agriculture Victoria and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

VFF clocks up four decades 95 Nelson Street, Nhill CALL 03 5391 2106

Victorian farmers’ peak body used National Agriculture Day last week to celebrate its 40th birthday.

Victorian Farmers Federation members and industry, government and media organisations celebrated the occasion at Melbourne Museum.

VFF president David Jochinke from Murra Warra said the birthday represented a significant milestone in farmer advocacy.

“It has also been an opportunity to reflect on the VFF’s rich history, acknowledge the priceless contributions of our members and celebrate Victorian agriculture’s strong future,” he said.

“In 1979, the Victorian Farmers Union, Victorian Graziers Association, and United Dairyfarmers of Victoria joined to form the Victorian Farmers and Graziers Association - later renamed the Victorian Farmers Federation.

“Over the past 40 years, the VFF has led the way in taking the concerns of rural and regional Victorians to decision makers and driving policy change.

“As Victoria’s peak body advocating for farmers, we regularly meet with politicians, government agencies and industry in pursuit of policy outcomes that support a viable, sustainable and socially responsible agricultural industry. The VFF has been instrumental in the current State Government drought package, the review of local government rates, protecting free trade agreements and limiting extreme animal activists.

“However, none of this would have been possible without the relentless determination and hard work of our members over four decades.”

Mr Jochinke said the birthday celebrations were about thanking members and honouring their contributions and achievements.

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orticulture growers in the Mallee electorate will have better access to labour during this season’s fruit harvest.

Minister for Agriculture Bridget McKenzie said the Federal Government was acting on concerns raised by growers across the country with a Regional Agriculture Migration Package.

She said it was a practical response to a need for greater access to migrant labour in the region.

“This package from our government shows what effective local representation can do for a community,” she said.

“Local member Anne Webster has been advocating for her community to get better access to a migrant workforce and has highlighted just how complex the issue is.

“This package is about getting the right labour at the right time at the right place, making sure there is suitable accommodation available and ensuring compliance with workplace laws.

“Importantly, the package will give growers, especially smaller growers, access to the Seasonal Worker Programme pilot, with a regional coordinator to help them club together to provide the volume of work needed to attract and sustain the harvest workforce.

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“The Wimmera-Mallee is a critically important food-producing region – accounting for 10 percent of all horticulture farms and generating more than $1.35-billion for our national economy – we can’t risk having that valuable fruit rot on the orchard floor.”

The changes mean up to an additional 1000 Pacific workers could be available this season, building on almost 4000 additional places available to workers from Vietnam, Thailand and Poland under the Work and Holiday visa program.

Dr Webster said the program was a win for the region.

“I’ve been taking the concerns of our growers to Canberra for months now and I’m pleased to see we have been listened to,” she said.

“We need to make sure these workers have appropriate places to live in our vibrant regions.

“Through this package, we’ll put an accommodation broker in the Wimmera-Mallee to work on innovative accommodation solutions.

“That’ll come from active, constructive partnership with local councils, state governments, industry, and communities.

“We have a chance to make sure we can get the fruit off the trees for our growers and generate additional economic activity through the accommodation component of the

“This package is about getting the right labour at the right time at the right place, making sure there is suitable accommodation available and ensuring compliance with workplace laws”

– Bridget McKenzie

program. That adds up to a win-win for the Mallee.”

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Michaelia Cash said the extension of the Seasonal Worker Programme pilot to the Wimmera-Mallee was for an additional two years.

“The government is committed to backing Australian farmers by improving access to seasonal workers to support regional communities and small businesses,” she said.

“The pilot will allow additional workers to assist eligible Australian growers for the upcoming harvest season.”

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said while his first priority was to fill jobs with Australian citizens, the immigration system helped to grow local economies and address regional skills gaps.

FRUITS OF LABOUR: From left, bunker attendants Alex Ross, Rob McNamara and Mitchell Hemmings examine this years’ harvest in a canola bunker at Viterra’s agricultural company site in Dooen. Wimmera’s leading agricultural and crop-research organisations are recruiting workers for the harvest season this summer, including in farm and field work.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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There’s no music in Tamworth 95 Nelson Street, Nhill CALL 03 5391 2106

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hink of Tamworth and we all of course think of the Country Music Festival.

I’ve just spent four days there for Red Meat 2019, and it had a far from festive feel.

Don’t get me wrong: the conference was great.

It’s the country, ravaged by two years of drought and shrouded in smoke and ash from fires that are scores of kilometres away.

We’ve all been through droughts and we will, of course, again. But it’s a bit like child birth. Your brain quickly recovers from the trauma, and then, here

you go again, suddenly remembering just how incredibly painful it is.

Tamworth is not part of the Murray Darling Basin and relies on the Peel River and Chaffey dam for all its water.

It’s so dire, all the lawns are dead and gardens dying as town folk live with water restrictions. There’s zero water allocation for irrigation.

One of the town’s two public pools is empty and closed. The town looks tired and depressed.

My hotel was on the main highway to the livestock sale yards and we watched truck load after truck load of cattle heading to the sales. They were

Country Today with Libby Price

in remarkably good nick, but talking to stock agent Chris Paterson, most of them would have been females that farmers had been desperately hanging on to as their all-important breeding stock.

The day before the store cattle sale, Chris visited a dozen or so of his clients.

“We tried to talk anything but drought to keep it more cheerful, but it inevitably got back to no rain and how hard it is. It sure is taking its toll on people,” he said.

Paterson has his own Angus stud which he started in 2011.

He too, has had to sell some very well-bred females.

It’s now cheaper for him to truck hay from South Australia more than 14 hours to Tamworth than to buy locally grown stockfeed.

As I interviewed him for Country Today, small flecks of ash landed on my microphone. It’s so smoky you can barely see the hills that surround

Tamworth. Another truckload of very fine looking Angus cows scramble as the driver hits the air brakes to turn to the saleyards.

Tamworth is cattle country. The town relies on it.

I couldn’t help but reflect on the farmer who’s so proudly bred and produced these fine animals and how difficult it must be to have to make that final decision.

And I thought maybe he has kids who want to go for a swim in the local pool, but even that’s empty. Tough times indeed.

Send ‘er down Hughie!

Dung beetle helping with climate change

Thinking ahead for next season

BY CRAIG ALTMANN What variety should I be growing this year?

It’s a thought and conversation many will be having during the next few months.

There are many new-variety releases that look like being available in commercial quantities of seed for 2020, and while very exciting, it also presents its challenges in making the decision.

One handy reference for the croppers is the just-released 2020 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide, put together

by Agriculture Victoria.

It’s a great publication, being a handy reference of collated information on the major grain crops grown in the area.

The many tables and good descriptions have led to it becoming a com-

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

mon tool to complement the likes of National Variety Trial data, trial field days and other guides.

Having this information in spring is very timely, giving people a chance to consider the options and get more information.

With this in mind, there are plenty of people busily harvesting and analyzing data at the moment as farmers and advisors make decisions on what changes to make.

A key message to take from this is that National Variety Trial data will be available early 2020, and in March 2020 will provide an update to cereal and pulse-disease ratings.

The combination of new varieties likely to be sold out early, incomplete information about the variety, pending market classifications and, a new season’s information to consid-

er, is a catch for some. Many people are increasingly well-informed about potential new varieties that might be around in the next year or two. What to do? Stick with what you’re growing, get into the next variety or, hold off for the potential new variety?

The risk in holding off for the variety that is still a breeder’s code pending release is that it might never actually make it to market for any number of reasons.

AGF Seeds Field day on Wednesday next week provides another opportunity to assess new cropping and pasture varieties.

For more information call me on 0448 863 169.

• Craig Altmann is seed sales and marketing agronomist with Australian Grain and Forage Seeds.

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As the agricultural industry struggles with increasing pressure of land-management practices on climate change, one Western Australian farmer has turned to the exotic dung beetle.

Doug Pow of Marron Brook Farm, 300 kilometres south of Perth is using the beetle, Bubas bison, to help implement a carbon-positive approach to farming.

Pioneering the use of biochar as a means of sequestering carbon, Mr Pow sidestepped intensive machinery to fertilise inaccessible Alps slopes by developing a plan using the dung beetle to bury the biochar-infused manure deep in the soil profile.

The plan landed Mr Pow an Australian Government Innovation in Agriculture Land Management Award at 2019 Western Australian Landcare Awards.

“When we first bought this farm, I noticed active dung beetles burying virtually every dung pat down as deep as 600 millimetres into the ground,” Mr Pow said.

“And after attending a biochar talk, explaining the effectiveness of GPS-controlled grain-farming-seeding equipment to put charcoal into the ground and then using the same GPS seeding equipment to plant the seed of the next grain crop over the char into the ground, they were getting an in-

crease in productivity. I thought, how could I put that into effect in a place like Manjimup, where we grow horticulture and tree crops, where we have big high hills and narrow gates and can’t pull 100-metre-wide equipment up mountain sides.

“So I attempted to feed some char to my cattle, let it fall out the other end and hoped the beetles would bury the dung of the cow they were burying, while also placing the char into the ground.

“The soil has become more fertile, it’s releasing the phosphorous that has been locked up in the soil back up to the surface, and that has a big advantage.”

Research into the use of biochar as a feed additive has so far indicated it can promote more efficient digestion and reduce methane emissions from ruminant livestock.

The methane gases, a huge climate change contributor, emitted by bacteria aiding bovine digestion, are consumed by methanotrophs within the char.

“The methanotrophs can comfortably live in the cow’s gut in the pore space of the biochar and they live on the methane, reducing harmful emissions,” Mr Pow said.

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rought-hit Mallee communities and farmers will receive a boost from Federal Government’s latest drought relief package.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the $709-million investment into drought affected communities.

Member for Mallee Anne Webster said the package would support Mallee farmers and communities through access to loans of up to $2 million.

She said loans would have zero interest on repayments for the first two years, after which interest-only payments would be at a ‘minimal rate’.

“This will see money flow right through the local economy,” she said.

“These loans can now be used for fodder, stock transport, agistment, farm improvements, employees’ wages and to refinance current debt.”

Dr Webster said the government included fodder and agistment in the loans in response to Millewa farmers in the state’s north-west who made requests to Minister for Drought David Littleproud.

“The addition of fodder and agistment means that farmers won’t have to sell all of their stock,” she said.

“It will help keep breeding herds on farm or give farmers the choice to agist herds further south, promoting a quicker recovery once this drought breaks.

“These loans will potentially save farmers who refinance, thousands of dollars and help them get back on their feet sooner.”

Dr Webster said small Mallee businesses dependant on agriculture would also have access

to interest-free loans of up to $500,000. She said the loans would have zero interest for two years, followed by interest for years three to five.

“Shearing contractors, harvesters and livestock transport and mechanical service providers have seen their turnover hit, and in many cases struggle to survive,” she said.

“This will protect jobs in the Mallee and make sure we can bounce back once the drought breaks.”

She said another ‘big win’ for regional producers was an available 100 gigalitres of water from South Australia to help grow feed for farm stock in Victoria and other locations in the Murray-Darling Basin.

She said it could allow for production of about 120,000 tonnes of fodder that could help Mallee farmers.

“Nationally, another $378 million will also go into drought-affected community projects and an extra $138.9 million into our Roads to Recovery initiative,” she said.

“There is also $10 million allocated to schools to make concessional fees available to families facing drought, allowing children to stay in school and removing this additional financial stress.

“A further $5-million childcare fund will assist childcare centres in drought affected communities, to keep childcare available to those who are doing it tough.

“Communities across Australia have been working hard through this drought, and this package provides a bit more hope and practical help for everyone to get through it. It helps to protect our jobs and economy so that when the drought breaks, we will bounce back faster.”

r o f g n i k o is lo ! s r o t u b i r t con Are you a farmer?

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Let us know about industry insights, life living on the land or anything agricultural related.

To find out more, phone The Weekly Advertiser on (03) 5382 1351

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Ryegrass remedy for 2020 W

immera farmers will be better able to control ryegrass for the 2020 season following the introduction of new herbicide Luximax.

International chemical giant BASF, which has a wheat and oilseed breed centre at Longerenong, has launched a world-first product based on its herbicide active ingredient Luximo for Australian farmers.

Luximax, which was only registered for use in wheat, bar durum wheat, is now registered under the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority as a mode of action for ryegrass.

BASF Australia and New Zealand head of agricultural solutions Gavin Jackson said Luximax was a ‘breakthrough’ as the first mode of action for ryegrass in Australia in 30 years.

He said the mode of action offered more options for chemical rotation, strengthened existing integrated weed-management strategies and provided up to 12 weeks’ residual control of ryegrass, including biotypes resistant to existing herbicide modes of action such as Groups D, J and K. “Luximax provides growers with new confidence to control their annual ryegrass problem for months after sowing and will also manage

NEW MODE OF ACTION: Wimmera farmer Rob Byrne, right, in his 2019 wheat crop with son Luke. Mr Byrne is one of many Australian growers who has trialled a new BASF herbicide for controlling ryegrass. brome grass and wild oats,� he said. “Australian growers are world leaders in agronomic practices, and we are proud to continue to support them by delivering the first new mode of action for ryegrass in 30 years. “We are excited by this world-first registration, and what it means for growers to add another tool to their rotation toolbox.�

Mr Jackson said Luximax was the first of three new BASF herbicides being launched in Australia

by 2021. He said more than 100 Australian growers had been running on-farm trials of the herbicide ahead of its launch, and growers said it was a welcome addition to their sustainable weed-management practises.

Wimmera grower Rob Byrne said Luximax was ‘doing the job’ and looking better in between the rows. “Ryegrass is our big issue and we are seeing it become more resistant.

Weeds are incredibly smart and we have to keep them guessing,� he

said. “We rely on companies to bring in new chemicals – if it was the same active it wouldn’t do a different job. “We need a new group that will give us a few years without any resistance.�

Luximax’s launch precedes the release of post-emergent herbicide Frequency and pre-emergent herbicide Voraxor which will offer growers new tools to control problematic weeds.

No charity status for activist group 95 Nelson Street, Nhill CALL 03 5391 2106

Federal Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud has welcomed a decision by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to strip Aussie Farms of its charitable status.

Mr Littleproud said Aussie Farms ran a website listing the details of thousands of Australian farms and encouraging activists to take part in farm invasions.

Aussie Farms describes itself as a ‘non-profit animal rights organisation, dedicating to ending commercialised animal abuse and exploitation in Australian animal agriculture facilities by increasing industry transparency and educating the public about modern farming and slaughtering practices’. “This is a win for common sense,� Mr Littleproud said. “As Agriculture Minister I wrote to the charities commissioner asking him to review Aussie Farms’ charitable status. Today he acted. “I also worked with the Attorney-General to bring Aussie Farms under the Privacy Act with a maximum penalty of $2.1 million for breaching the act. “Charities do not invade people’s privacy and encourage illegal behaviour. “Our farmers deserve respect for putting the best food in the world on our dinner tables. “These activists put farming families at risk by encouraging large-scale trespass. “No one wants 50 strangers invading their backyard where their kids play. “Aussie Farms will lose charity tax benefits after being exposed for what they are – militant activists.�

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