This video helps you develop basic skills in sub-clover cultivar identification and narrow down what sub-clover cultivars are growing in your paddocks. Not being able to identify problem sub-clover cultivars means up to 30% winter production could be forfeited if growing outdated varieties or oestrogenic sub-clovers that impact on sheep reproduction go unrecognised.

More info www.sfs.org.au or  office@sfs.org.au

With all the talk about climate change have you ever wondered what it might mean for your farming business?  What impact will there be on crop yields, pasture growth and farm profit?  If I need to be prepared, what changes should I be thinking about?

Southern Farming Systems have received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund to conduct analysis on 32 crop and livestock farms in South West Victoria to understand the likely impact of different climate change predictions.

For more information watch this short video

To register your interest contact Tahlia Ferguson SFS, E: tferguson@sfs.org.au, M: 0418 462 967

Presenter Dr Susan Orgill, NSW DPI addresses the following scenario: Carbon, it’s all that’s talked about. My kids want me to do something to help the environment and there seems to be lots of benefits in improving soil carbon and I don’t want to miss out if there is money to be made from carbon trading. But I hear it’s tricky to tell if you are actually making a difference and to do this you need to monitor over a long time or test carbon fractions. I’m not sure that my carbon levels are even that bad and that its worth lifting them. How do I even tell and if I do try and improve, what’s the best way to improve soil carbon? The neighbours are putting on compost and I have heard about special pasture renovators and even biological stimulants to increase soil carbon.

Presenter: Dr Mark Farrell, CSIRO addresses the following scenario: Healthy soils are the foundation of a productive and profitable grazing system. In the past the focus on achieving a healthy soil and pasture has been meeting sufficient levels of available nutrients by fertilising. However today some producers are querying the response they are getting from their traditional fertilisers given the money they spend; fertiliser just doesn’t seem to work like they used to. Understandably many question if they are getting good value for the fertiliser investment. When combined with recent discussion around achieving balanced soil condition, holistic soil management, feeding the soil bugs and ‘natural’ fertilisers, it is not surprising many of us are wondering what’s the right way to go.

Dr James Hunt talks about optimizing wheat yield through selection of variety for its optimal flowering time in the HRZ.

Australian farming is one of the riskiest businesses in the world because of climatic conditions, prices and our reliance on export markets. This video explores concepts around risk in farming. It explains volatility, the limitations with using averages to understand risk, correlations between yields and prices and how to frame the odds to inform risky decisions. It also shows ways of presenting information so the risk can be appreciated.

We commonly make decisions without thinking too much about them, using previous ‘rules’ to guide the choices we make. But are these rules always the best to follow and could they be leading us to make poorer decisions? This video explores the concept of Rules of Thumb and how to test if they are appropriate for the next big decision you are going to make.

Many decisions in farming are complex. There are often multiple factors to weigh up but may not be of equal importance. We also know complex decision are influenced by our head, heart and gut. This video steps through a simple process to help make more informed decisions using a seven-step process called a decision matrix.