Expert knowledge
Disease management and growing pulses are two of many topics on the agenda for Birchip Cropping Group’s annual Trials Review Day.
Birchip Cropping Group, BCG, senior extension manager Kelly Angel said the event offered members a chance to connect, meet new people and catch-up with other farmers, researchers, agronomists and industry representatives from across the region.
Agriculture Victoria research scientist Dr Hari Dadu will speak about his approach to disease management in cereal crops.
“Good crop disease management will be required in 2024 due to the early summer rain and potential disease risk in south-east Victoria,” he said.
“I’ll be discussing the importance of off-season and in-crop strategies to manage cereal diseases during 2024.
“This will include the advantages of removing green bridge by midmarch, the use of a cereal disease guide to select better varieties and the importance of paddock selection.
“I’ll also highlight the status of fungicide resistance in Victoria and detail the strategies to slow the fungicide resistance development and protect their longevity.”
Dr Dadu will also discuss the results of 2023 Agriculture Victoria trials, which showed significant yield losses due to disease despite a dry spring.
Agriculture Victoria senior research agronomist Jason Brand will speak about growing pulses on variable soil types, new lentil varieties, disease ratings, frost tolerance, yields and the new field pea release APB Bondi.
He said he would discuss Agriculture Victoria and BCG research undertaken on variable soils.
“I’ll reflect on some of the results from Gerang and Pyramid Hill,” he said.
“The results from Gerang really highlighted the yield stability that crops like faba beans compared with all other pulses in this west Wimmera zone have on the variable sand and duplex soil types, but there is hope for other pulses as constraints are addressed through agronomic and breeding solutions.
“Similar observations were made at Pyramid Hill with constrained clay soil — sodic, saline at depth — highlighting future opportunities for lentils and peas in this region.”
Other topics will include farmer and adviser experiences, grid sampling at a paddock scale, silicon in wheat and lentils, long coleoptile for moisture management, Rosinweed and Star of Bethlehem management, insects in harvest weed seed control systems, vetch for risk mitigation in dry times, soil microbial indicators, slug and snail management, the latest cereal varieties and protein mapping experiences.
As a member-only event, attendees have first access to the 2023 BCG Season Research Results compendium.
People can visit bcg.org.au to become a member and register for the event.
The event is at the Birchip Leisure Centre on February 23 from 9am to 4pm.