Research for the Riverine Plains 2020

Welcome to Research for the Riverine Plains, 2020.

All in all, 2019 was another challenging year for farming across much of the Riverine Plains region. The autumn break was fairly elusive for most, with some areas seeing a reasonable April and crop sown into moisture, while others had to dry sow much (or all) their cropping program.

Some extraordinarily heavy rains during May brought mixed blessings for many, with the event causing widespread erosion and crusting, affecting the germination of canola crops in particular. However, the rain also helped crops along, placing them in a good position heading into winter, though poor late-winter and spring rainfall had many crops on a knife’s edge throughout spring. Fortunately, relatively cool spring conditions helped many crops finish, with some yielding surprisingly well despite the lack of spring rainfall. The cool conditions did hinder the hay-making process somewhat though.

2019 was a particularly important year for Riverine Plains as it marked 20 years since the group’s establishment. The group celebrated this significant milestone at the Celebration of Agriculture dinner held during early March, with past chair, Andrew Russell, sharing the history of the group as well as highlights from the past two decades. The dinner also saw Mitchell Priestly, from Shepparton, Victoria announced as the recipient of the inaugural John Hanrahan Scholarship. The Scholarship presentation was the culmination of many years, and countless hours, of effort by members of the committee, staff and our supporters, which also saw us become a registered charity in the process.

As a group, we are dedicated to improving the productivity of broadacre farming systems in north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales and there is no better way to do this than to support the next generation of passionate agriculturists from our area. We again thank the Hanrahan family and all those who have contributed to the Scholarship fund during the past few years.

Farming systems groups, like Riverine Plains, play a vital role in validating cutting-edge research at a local level, so growers can continue to evolve and adapt their businesses with confidence. Our group takes pride in the quality of our research and extension programs, and I would especially like to thank members, sponsors and supporters for their continued support of our events. The extension events and discussion groups we host add value to farming businesses, but importantly, what we do also adds to the social cohesion of the rural communities in our area.

In some ways, Riverine Plains has become its own community, where passionate growers and agribusiness can learn from each other and experts in the field. This is a great achievement and something I hope continues for another 20 years.

As well as marking the 20th Anniversary of Riverine Plains, 2019 was another big year for the Riverine Plains research and extension program. Last year, our program comprised more than 24 individual events and we are proud to have delivered so many meaningful events to our members. Hosting such a large extension program also speaks volumes about the way Riverine Plains has developed and evolved since our first few meetings, 20 or so years ago.

Learn more about our research trials and activities in Research for the Riverine Plains, 2020.