AgLife – May 30, 2018 edition

May 30, 2018

Life on the farm Ryan Chessum and his dog Leia check a paddock on Scott Johns’ Dooen property for moisture. The Longerenong College graduate loves being on the land. Story, page 27.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

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FARMERS: HAY SEASON IS APPROACHING! Don’t let your valuable hay go to s#*% this season DIGGING IN: Farm worker Ryan Chessum and his dog Leia check a paddock on Scott Johns’ Dooen property for moisture. Farmers across the region remain uncertain about seasonal prospects in the face of sporadic rain. Leia lost a leg as a result of a farm accident last year but remains a sprightly part of life on the farm.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER

✘

From study to work on farm Longerenong College graduate Ryan Chessum from Cobram is among people in the Wimmera’s agricultural workforce, having been employed on Mr Johns’ farm for the past two years.

Mr Johns said he had met Mr Chessum, a scholarship winner, at a Victorian Farmers Federation grains conference in Horsham.

“He was doing his certificate course at Longy at the time and after the conference dinner he was cruising the tables and sat down next to me,” he said.

“Second-year students usually do work place-

ment and I asked if he would like to come and help me put the crop in.

“He did the eight-week placement and later that year, in response to the expectation that I might get busier, I asked if he would like to come on full time.

“So Ryan’s been working with me now for two years and is nicely attached in the community.”

Mr Johns said Mr Chessum’s dog Leia was a lucky escapee in a tangle with a tractor, which had sadly cost another dog its life.

“We thought Leia was right and didn’t get injured but she went lame and after a couple of visits to the vet the diagnosis was that the limb wasn’t recoverable,” he said.

“But she’s recovered and she remains a good little dog.”

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for each commodity with each relevant country.

An example of this would be counsellors working to improve market access and lift suspensions in Malaysia for beef and veal.”

Agriculture and Water Resources minister David Littleproud said the Coalition continued to be the ‘kings of free trade agreements’, with the TPP-11 the most recent to be signed.

“The TPP-11 opens Australia up to markets worth a total of $13.8-trillion and we are in a great position to capitalise on that, meaning more money and more opportunities for our farmers,” he said.

“We also continue to give farmers a fair go through measures such as doubling farm management deposits to $800,000 and instant asset write-offs for fodder and water storage to build drought resilience.

“Farmers and small businesses will continue to have access to the $20,000 instant asset writeoffs for a further 12 months to enable them to replace or upgrade things like the old work ute.”

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Growing exports for farmers Farmers across the region are set to reap the benefits of a Coalition government trade push in the 2018-19 budget.

Member for Wannon Dan Tehan said a $51.3-million package in the budget would give Australian agriculture stronger representation in Europe and the UK, Latin America and across key markets in Asia.

“This government is delivering more market access so farmers can have choice as to where they sell their produce, and can negotiate for the best prices,” he said.

“We are funding six new agricultural counsellor positions in key emerging export markets and extending five counsellor positions in Vietnam, Malaysia, the Middle East, China and Thailand.

“Free-trade agreements can reduce tariffs, but we need market access agreements for each specific commodity before our farmers can export their produce there.

“Agricultural counsellors give us market access agreements by working through the science

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ooen farmer Scott Johns has been busy preparing for the approaching season and like many farming enterprises across the region employs help to get the job done.

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Wimmera Southern Mallee Ag Events June 1

Art Is Festival—Full details of events www.artiswimmera.com

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VFF Wimmera Branch Meeting. Rupanyup Community Centre. 6pm.

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Communication and Influence masterclass. Horsham.

4

Chain of Responsibility.workshop. Horsham RSL. 3-5pm.

5

Communication and Influence masterclass. Horsham.

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Communication skills in leadership for Women. Stawell.

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ABC of Communication Success for Women. Stawell.

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Cultivate Agribusiness Ag Conversation Series. Mt Rowan

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VFF Lubeck Woolshed Gathering. Lubeck.

13 & 14 Hindmarsh Landcare Fascinating Fungi Workshop. Dimboola.

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Nuffield Scholarship Applications Close. www.nuffield.com

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Perenial Pasture Systems Lucerne Field Day. Mt Cole Creek.

26

Leadership Wimmera Breakfast with Damien Tomlinson. Horsham.

26

Practicle Pest Management Strategies for Farmers. Kaniva.

26

Practicle Pest Management Strategies for Farmers. Woorak.

27

Practicle Pest Management Strategies for Farmers. Wallup.

27

Practicle Pest Management Strategies for Farmers. Taylors Lake.

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BY SARAH SCULLY

orsham Rural City councillors have welcomed a future directions report for the city’s livestock exchange that aims to ensure its longevity in the face of industry challenges.

The report provides direction for Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange for the next 10 to 20 years, including supporting the transition to a mandatory electronic identification system for sheep and goats.

Cr David Grimble said the Horsham exchange was the fourth largest in the state behind Ballarat, Bendigo and Hamilton.

“Saleyards really are a true market indicator and will always have a role to play – and a role for Horsham, because of the nature of the stock that goes through the facility,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of broadacre farming to the north and west of the city and those people require lambs for their stubbles very strategically throughout the year.”

Hosham Regional Livestock Exchange is the Wimmera’s major livestock-selling centre, attracting vendors from as far as the South Australian border and southern New South Wales.

Cr Grimble, who chairs the Horsham exchange board, said the future directions report contained a series of

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A future directions report for Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange has been welcomed by manager Paul Christopher.

Picture: PAUL CARRACHER recommendations. Key recommendations include constructing a roof for the existing facility; adopting a specialist saleyard software management system; adopting an Outcross implementation strategy for the National Livestock Identification System; and closing the weekly cattle sales and considering acting as a transit centre for larger facilities or introducing a monthly store sale or seasonal feature sale.

“The board strongly supports a number of those recommendations,” Cr Grimble said.

“Among these was a recommendation that the roofing should not be staged and the board is indicating they would like to see a non-staged approach.

“We need to have a funding mechanism to allow a full roof over the facility and if that’s not affordable, then a staged process rather than just a small roof.”

The report shows constructing a roof over the sheep portion of the exchange would deliver economic, environmental and social benefits, including boosting animal welfare, human wel-

fare and safety and reduced costs of infrastructure maintenance and cleaning.

“If the facility remains uncovered, vendors will be more likely to choose an alternate marketing option for their livestock that is better able to present the stock in peak condition and manage animal welfare risks,” the report showed.

“An uncovered HRLE will result in an uncompetitive selling environment compared to adjacent facilities at Ballarat and Hamilton.

“Once there is an obvious advantage in marketing stock elsewhere,

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the HRLE will find it increasingly difficult to maintain the strong market and attract livestock.”

The Horsham exchange hosts sheep sales each Wednesday.

The report recommended maintaining weekly sales but perhaps reconsidering the day of the sales, since it clashed with Hamilton sales, which competes for buyers and attendance.

Cr Grimble welcomed the recommendation to retain weekly sales.

“It certainly creates a lot of buyers and volume of stock to go through the facility,” he said.

“Very clearly you need volume to attract buyers and a lot of buyers require a competitive environment.”

Mayor Pam Clarke commended the extensive and detailed report.

“The livestock exchange is one of the most important facilities we have for our municipality and it’s really important for our economic wellbeing as a region,” she said.

Cr John Robinson welcomed the suite of recommendations and urged people to look at the bigger picture.

“The saleyards, the employment, the reputation adds to the bigger picture and ultimately contributes towards our wealth in this area,” he said.

“We talk about the saleyards and about putting a roof on it, but it’s kind of like putting a roof on a bigger area in terms of keeping our profile up.”

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Desperately dry times T

his week was the first time I’ve heard anyone mention the dreaded ‘d’ word to describe the season.

That’s drought of course, although it was prefaced by the word ‘green’.

Governments prefer us to say, ‘unseasonally dry’.

Around much of Victoria, that’s an understatement. And with winter now upon us as we march into June, any rain now will be too late for a big burst of pasture growth as it will simply be too cold.

I live in predominantly sheep and cattle country and the sheep and lamb losses this year are already appearing to be very high.

First, through pregnancy toxaemia, with so many ewes now having multiple lambs, it’s just too much for their bodies to take.

It reminds me of the drought in the 1980s when I was working on a cattle property and cows started collapsing.

The farmer would pick them up in the front end loader and put them in the shelter of the hay shed with plenty of feed and water, turning them over every few days to avoid the cows becoming cast. I have to say, it was pathetic to witness. Not one cow survived. Putting them down would have been kinder.

Farmers are having to feed their livestock every day and it’s costing tens of thousands of dollars for many.

What’s worse, ewes are abandoning their newly born lambs when the feed arrives, such is their hunger and instinct to survive. And foxes are also hungry and preying on weak lambs.

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Country Today with Libby Price

I did a very interesting interview for Country Today about magnesium and calcium deficiency in sheep.

Even when pastures are tested to be at the desired level, pregnant ewes are usually not getting enough.

Just some simple salt licks can help, especially when there is so little pasture about.

In the past fortnight, fodder prices have gone up by about 30 percent.

Farmers in central NSW are so desperate they even buy the much lower quality hay that’s been sitting in a shed for a couple of years.

Feed barley is also at record high prices so not an option for many, though a good crop to be sowing if you have had the rain.

This is different though from the last drought. As an avid watcher of the rain radar, in the 2000s the cold fronts would fall too far south and pass the mainland, heading eastwards towards New Zealand.

This time, it’s more the fronts just do not seem to be strong enough and peter out before bringing a decent drop.

It’s Murphy’s Law. Just when lamb and beef prices are good, we’re hit with another dry spell.

I think it is time someone organised one of those naked rain dances to give Murphy a bit of a fright.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE: From left, Gibson Sosanika, Dr Sally Norton and Jimmy Frans Wanma in Horsham.

Sharing knowledge to save more seed Scientists have shared the inner workings of the Australian Grains Genebank in Horsham with two international scholars as a part of a project to collect and conserve forest species in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Researchers Jimmy Frans Wanma and Gibson Sosanika visited the genebank for training in developing ex-situ genebanks for seed conservation.

They made the trip with support from the Crawford Fund and the Australian Grains Genebank.

Mr Wanma, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Papua, Indonesia and Mr Sosanika, a researcher at Papua New Guinea University of Technology, took part in an eight-day training course.

They worked with Australian Grains Genebank leader Dr Sally Norton, Agriculture Victoria molec-

ular plant-breeding research scientist Katherine Whitehouse and collection technical officer Kevin Murray.

Dr Norton said the training was aimed at helping the international researchers to develop improved programs to conserve the forest species they work with in their home countries for resource management and food security.

“The AGG has implemented best practice into its activities and is well positioned to provide this training to the international participants,” she said.

While in Horsham, Mr Wanma and Mr Sosanika received hands-on experience in setting up seed-viability tests, collecting data, assessing data integrity and the management of data in specialised databases.

They also studied the principles of post-harvest seed threshing and cleaning and the preparation of seeds

for long-term storage. Mr Sosanika said the training had provided him with a greater understanding of genebank practices based on international genebank standards.

“We hope to share our new skills and knowledge with colleagues when we get home, resulting in improved conservation of forestry species in both Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea,” he said.

Dr Norton said the training had resulted in strengthened connections.

“This has the potential to improve the exchange of germplasm and data and develop opportunities for collaborative research to more effectively use and conserve germplasm,” she said.

In the two weeks before their visit to the genebank, Mr Wanma and Mr Sosanika visited Kakadu in the Northern Territory for training in ‘crop wild relative seed collecting’.

JAALA PULFORD – Member for Western Victoria

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he complex problems faced by agriculture and rural communities will be tackled in a three-day event at Birchip Cropping Group next month.

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Harnessing technology opportunities, declining rural social capital, maintaining rural ecosystems and improving community and farmer health are just some of the ‘wicked problems’ to be addressed at the BCG Community Network Charrette.

BCG chairwoman Caroline Welsh said the group expected the event to be very intense, but also very rewarding as it explored the ‘highhanging fruit issues’ rural communities faced.

“About 25 researchers and experts from around Australia and local representatives will lend their experiences and resources to the integrative event for real outcomes,” she said.

“The event has been made possible with the generous support of the William Buckland Foundation and is the brainchild of the BCG board and chief executive, all who saw the need for research and solutions that are wider ranging than individual projects can provide.”

BCG chief executive Chris Sounness said precision agriculture had the potential to provide huge gains in agricultural production by harnessing ‘big data’.

“However, communities might lack the capability to implement the solutions or the trust to move them forward, especially when many rural

“About 25 researchers and experts from around Australia and local representatives will lend their experiences and resources to the integrative event for real outcomes”

– Caroline Welsh

communities possess inadequate internet and phone connection,” he said.

“Another major challenge faced by rural communities is population decline. Farmers seek economies of scale to counter seasonal variability and fluctuating commodity prices. This leads to reduced labour units, which leads to decline in rural populations, liveability and prosperity.”

Both Ms Welsh and Mr Sounness said they were looking forward to the input of locals, some of whom had returned to the region to start businesses and raise families.

“These people have the potential to influence what the future of the Mallee and Wimmera might look like,” they said.

“The event is the beginning of a three-year project and the exploration of these solutions will be supported by subsequent events and meetings. It is hoped the project will be a pilot for other rural communities to use.”

People wanting more information on the event can call Louisa Ferrier at Birchip Cropping Group on 5492 2787.

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