Media

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.

The webinar features leading Frost Research Expert Kelly Angel, BCG and local agronomists, discussing the latest research and approaches to managing frost on-farm. With SFS farmers sharing their experiences and ideas to direct future research investment.

Better Frost Decisions is an extension project that aims to assist farmers in frost-prone areas to make better-informed decisions to help farm businesses better manage (and reduce) the risk and impact from frost. Better Frost Decisions is part of a national GRDC investment through the project “Applying current knowledge to inform grower decision making to mitigate the impact of frost, now and in the future”, with Mallee sustainable Farming coordinating this project across the Southern Region.

SFS Winter Crop Walk Video Series has been developed in the response to improvements in our communications with members and partners and COVID-19 restrictions, you can't come to the trials we will bring the trials to you.

Follow a day in the life of sowing trials at SFS this season.

Paul Breust discusses the 2015 Seeder Demo Day, April 2016.

SFS's Aaron Vague summarises the current Harvest Weed Seed Project.

SFS's Simon Faulkiner and Gorst Rural's Craig Drum discuss the Pastures in Crop Sequencing Project.

Annieka Paridaen formerly of SFS discusses Dual Purpose Wheat.

SFS looks at the benefits of direct heading canola in western Victoria.

SFS's compares water rates to desiccate weeds under a canola canopy.

SFS's Paul Breust summarises the Inverleigh Seeder Demonstration.

SFS's John Midwood discusses the results of late-season nitrogen application trials.

Ag Consultant Cam Nicholson talks about SFS's recent involvement in the Online Farm Trials Project - funded by GRDC (March 2014).

SFS's Annieka Paridaen discusses the results of spring sown winter wheat.

Dual purpose Canola featuring grower David Brady and SFS's Annieka Paridaen.

Dr Chris Preston discusses strategies to combat weeds at harvest.