49th Annual Conference

14-15th August 2008 

Bairnsdale Aquatic and Recreation Centre

Bus Tours

Thursday 14th August departing at 11:45am and returning around 5:30pm.

Selecting your first and second tour preference on your registration form is essential. 

The number of seats on each tour is limited and while we will try to allocate first preference, it will be based on order of receipt.

Tour 1 ~   "The Perfect Meal"

This kicks off a visit to Oneharvest Vegco’s processing factory where value adding to vegetables occurs, with fresh cut packs and ready to eat meals prepared for supermarkets Australia –wide. Then to Bonaccord Ingram on the Mitchell River flats at Lindenow where Ross Ingram will demonstrate and discuss the challenges of intensive vegetable production with uncertain water supplies.  Then on to Rod Polkinghorne’s farm “Marinya” to look at adaptations for rearing cattle in a changing climate. Rod is well known for his work with MSA meat grading standards, and has opened butcher shops in Melbourne which sell guaranteed quality meat meals, not anatomy lessons

Tour 2 ~  "Irrigation Transformation"

Come and see how these two sheep properties have been transformed by the adoption of irrigation (centre pivots) , improved overall management, and changes in enterprise. “Paringa” a traditional sheep property has been converted into a large scale dairy and irrigated cropping operation milking in excess of 1400 dairy cows. See first hand the Vardy’s challenge of feeding a large milking herd using irrigated pasture, maize, lucerne, and cereal crops all grown on the property. The property has undergone large scale development in not only infrastructure but also in soil fertility, starting with Olsen phosphorus levels of 3 or 4. “Disley” The Fechners have expanded the irrigation on their Bengworden property taking it from a dry land Merino wool enterprise to also include irrigated seed potatoes and Prime Lambs under Irrigated pastures, Canola, and fodder crops.  Experience the journey of gearing up the irrigation, pasture production, prime lamb production, and the opportunistic crops that can be grown under a centre pivot irrigator.

Tour 3 ~  Crop Care Australasia - "Integration a Key to Success"

This tour is about integrating cereal crops into pasture systems, particularly focussing on their costs, production, agronomic properties, characteristics and benefits. Visit the Bengworden district looking at wheat, barley, triticale and grazing canola. The farm hosts, Trevor Caithness and Rick Robertson and The Southern Farming Systems trial site will show how three months of high quality and high quantity forage can be grazed from these crops in the winter, followed by the harvest of silage or hay or grain in the spring / summer. This tour will also incorporate an EverGraze site.

Tour 4 ~  Landmark "Grazing and Fertiliser hit the Spot"

Visit Shaun and Maria Beasley’s Farm “Emu Park” where they are hosting the NLP funded Redgum Plains Sustainable Grazing Trial. This trial  demonstrates that with the establishment of appropriate perennial pastures, fertiliser regimes and grazing management systems, stocking rates 2-3 times the district average can be carried sustainably. Project consultant Lisa Warn will present the trial results so far and give an overview of the rationale behind the trial. Shaun will give us a farm tour focusing on large scale pasture renovation, benchmarked wool production and his nucleus flock producing rams of high genetic merit.