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Mingenew Midwest Expo committee and CSBP join forces for the ‘Ask a Farmer’ segment at this year’s Main Event

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CSBP advice, insight and marketing manager Grey Johnston and CSBP senior agricultural specialist Doug Hamilton.
Camera IconCSBP advice, insight and marketing manager Grey Johnston and CSBP senior agricultural specialist Doug Hamilton. Credit: CSBP/CSBP

Primary school children will have their burning questions about farming answered in a special video being filmed at the one-day event organised by the Mingenew Midwest Expo board.

This year’s event — a one-day forum called The Main Event set to be held on August 12 — will feature a new session this year, called Ask a Farmer and sponsored by CSBP.

Children from local Mid West will be able to submit questions a few weeks before the event, and the questions will be asked of farmers visiting the CSBP tent throughout the day.

CSBP advice, insight and marketing manager Grey Johnston will work with an Expo board member to pick local farmers to answer the questions during the day.

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Mr Johnston is no stranger to a microphone, as the host of CSBP’s Grow Better podcast — which was launched in May to share knowledge on crop nutrition, sustainable agriculture and global issues.

Mingenew Midwest Expo board member Billi Marshall said the answers to the questions would be recorded, and the footage would be played at the schools for the children to listen to.

“We were really trying to get back to what Expo is all about, and the biggest part of that is communicating and sharing our industry with others,” she said.

“We want people to come to Expo and take away something new, we want to be able to accommodate for everyone. We want to encourage kids to come back to country towns, and that’s why we want to put something on the cards for the youngest generation.

“We want the kids to be able to ask the questions they want to know. If we can present an opportunity to ask a question of a farmer, we can give something back to all the kids.”

CSBP has sponsored the segment, which Mr Johnston said came about after Ms Marshall appeared on the Grow Better podcast earlier this year.

“We have been an exhibitor for a long time, and we see all of the field days as a really important way to engage with our customers and communities more broadly,” he said.

“This new segment is a great and novel idea… we are always looking at ways we can help to educate young people and community members about agriculture and the opportunities it can offer.

“I am looking forward to seeing some of the questions the kids ask the farmers.”

CSBP senior digital agricultural specialist Doug Hamilton has also been selected to present at this year’s event, and will talk on CSBP Detect - a world-first spectroscopy and machine learning solution that launched this year providing growers with real-time nitrogen recommendations.

The company piloted the technology during the past two growing seasons, using a unique combination of spectroscopy and machine learning to measure plant nitrogen status and provide nitrogen recommendations in real-time.

Mr Hamilton plans to talk about how CSBP Detect has been developed to provide recommendations for WA conditions and the response to its launch this year.

CSBP is going for a community feel in this year’s tent, calling it the CSBP Community Lounge and offering barista-made coffee to encourage those visiting to relax and have a chat.

The Ask a Farmer segment will be held at the CSBP tent while Mr Hamilton’s presentation will be held at the Nutrien Ag Solutions Presenters’ Tent from 2.30pm to 3pm.

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