Grains Research and Development Corporation spring panel tour to visit WA’s Great Southern

The Grains Research and Development Corporation’s upcoming western regional panel tour will tackle the issues keeping growers awake at night. The GRDC spring panel tour will travel through WA’s Great Southern region during September. GRDC’s regional panels play a critical advisory and strategic role in informing the corporation’s investments in research, development and extension (RD&E). The spring tour will take place from September 10 to 13 with western region panel members and staff meeting with local growers, grower group representatives, researchers and advisers at a range of farms and trial sites. Newly-appointed western panel chair Gary Lang, a Wickepin farmer, said the tour was an opportunity for the panel to visit Great Southern growers’ home patch and engage with those who might not regularly attend GRDC events. “The panel tour is an important opportunity to get to know the western panel and build personal connections, empowering growers to keep the conversation going about constraints and issues on their farm,” Mr Lang said. “In addition to the insights we gather on tour, panel tours are about building panel member–grower relationships to enable robust, two-way dialogue. “The tour also provides an opportunity to take panel members out of their comfort zone — which is the area that they farm or work — and provide a deeper understanding of what it’s like for growers in other areas, in those circumstances, in that year. “This all contributes to GRDC’s role in building relevant, timely and impactful investments in RD&E to maintain growers’ enduring profitability.” Mr Lang said after a relatively dry start to the season in most parts of the grain belt, decent falls through July and August had turned the season around for many WA growers. The tour will begin at Highbury on Tuesday, September 10, before moving through Kukerin, Lake Grace, Nyabing, Broomehill, Gnowangerup and Ongerup, finishing in South Stirling on Friday, September 13. It will include visits to trial sites where studies are being carried out on oats, soil re-engineering, pest and weed control, farming systems, canola establishment, canola on canola, faba beans, pasture legumes and snail management. GRDC board members, staff and panel members from other grain growing regions across Australia will also join the tour, taking advantage of the opportunity to gain a first-hand understanding of local and regional challenges in WA. For more details, contact the Perth office via western@grdc.com.au or 08 9230 4600.