The GRDC is seeking tender applications from interested parties with the capability, proven track record and relevant links to provide the operational activities of wheat variety classification.

The GRDC has released the first comprehensive environmental plan for the grains industry to ensure the industry has a clear framework for prioritising environmental R&D.

The plan covers existing and anticipated production constraints, from landscape issues through to climate variability and climate change. It examines risks and opportunities, acknowledges the extensive contribution many growers are already making to sound environmental management, and is intended to demonstrate the industry’s proactive approach to its changing environmental circumstances.

Persistent drought has helped southern Queensland-based Hamish Johnstone learn a lot about water-use efficiency. “The drought has taught us a fair bit about water ... because we have had none,” he quips.
[Photo (left) by Rebecca Thyer: Hamish Johnstone with irrigated wheat planted in May.]

From his base at ‘MacIntyre Downs’ Hamish manages PrimeAg’s Goondiwindi operational hub – 10,300 hectares of irrigated and dryland farms on the Queensland–NSW border.

Restoring saline paddocks by planting saltbush on their Dalwallinu, Western Australia, farm has given the Butcher family confidence that they can remain viable while adjusting to seemingly increasing climate variability.

One of the strengths of the GRDC is the feedback it receives from growers and industry on R&D priorities, ensuring research is targeted to real needs and opportunities.
This feedback is achieved through a number of ways. The GRDC has three regional panels covering the northern, southern and western regions. The panels comprise growers, researchers and industry representatives and provide high-value input into both regional and national research priorities.

Vault ready to save the world’s seed

The arrival of 230,000 seed samples at an underground facility in the Arctic Circle has marked the opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility built by the Global Crop Diversity Trust to safeguard food crops against natural or man-made calamity. The vault will eventually house virtually every variety of the most important food crops in the world and was built with the support of the GRDC.

Too much emphasis is often placed on agronomy and crop yield when looking to improve profit, when larger gains can be made from fine-tuning the whole business, says Dr Peter Wylie, author of a GRDC-commissioned report, High profit farming in northern Australia.

Late rains, high wheat prices and low cotton prices saw many cotton growers increase their cereals programs this season

Cotton planting is being dictated by water availability and economics
With less water and high grain prices, typical cotton rotations are being re-thought and more grain is being grown
Spreading water-use across the year, through two grain crops, helps spread overheads and income over the year
Although good rains revived irrigation water supplies across the Queensland–NSW border early this year, much of it proved to be too late for cotton growers, prompting a step-up in northern cereal production.

 A puzzle facing Australian health researchers could be solved through the creation of a new wheat variety – a development that could also bring Australian grain growers and the food industry a competitive advantage

GM canola interest grows
Monsanto is finding that canola varieties incorporating its Roundup Ready® technology trait are attracting considerable grower attention, even though these GM crops will comprise between just one and two per cent of Australia’s total canola crop in 2008. Monsanto canola business leader Tony May says the company has been overwhelmed by interest from growers in Victoria and NSW.