Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke has appointed new members to the Grains Research and Development Corporation board.

Both the new members and some returning members have been appointed until 30 September 2011. 

To see the DAFF media release click here

To visit the GRDC Board profile page click here

Australian farmers are a famously innovative lot, inventing the first mechanical harvester and the stump-jump plough to name just a couple of famous innovations.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) wants to tap into their vast pool of ideas by giving them a challenge.

A new university curriculum has been developed to reinvigorate the training and development of Australia’s next generation of plant breeders and crop scientists. 

Launched as the International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research (ICPBER) by the University of Western Australia (UWA), the new curriculum will take a lead in heading off a looming, critical shortage of specialists working on crop improvement. It is widely acknowledged that a generational gap has opened up in plant breeding expertise after a worldwide decline in agricultural graduates over the past decade and longer.

The GRDC has now included Grains Research Update newsletters for the GRDC Northern and Southern regions online. These newsletters provide technical agronomic information to accompany the GRDC adviser update program. To view more, click here.

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.