UNDERGROUND – Building Better Farming Systems

May 18, 2016

UNDERGROUND

Underground – 14th Annual Conference Program Bendigo July 7th 2016

8.00 – 8.20am                    Registrations/Seating

8.20 – 8.30am                    Welcome: VNTFA President Paul Oxbrow (10mins)

8.30 – 9.30am                    Joshua Dukart, Bismarck, North Dakota – Managing Land, Wealth & People for Success? Are you farming the way you want to? A Whole Farm Decision making framework (60 mins)

9.30 – 10.25am                  Tom Robinson, SANTFA President – 5th Generation grower from Hoyleton SA Runs a high residue zero-till CTF system on 6” spacings, wheat, wheat, canola rotation with winter and summer cover crops (45 mins) 10 mins + Q&A

10.25 – 11.00am                Morning Tea (35 mins)

11.00 – 11.10am                A word from our Sponsors Emmett’s (10 mins)

11.10 – 12.40pm               Dr Odette Menard, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Quebec Canada – Agricultural engineer, soil and water conservation specialist. Improving soils through no-till, increasing residues, & re-thinking rotations. “Earthworms, Soil conservation, soil health: Getting to the roots of it” (90 mins)

12.40 – 12.50pm               A word from our Sponsors Graincorp (10 mins)

12.50 – 1.30pm                  Lunch (40mins)

1.30 – 2.25pm                    Scott Blurton – Streatham in the Western Districts of Victoria. Scott transitioned the traditional grazing enterprise to 100% cropping by implementing a no-till & CTF system. He has been zero-till for 5 years and is using covers to overcome ‘fairly hostile’ sodic subsoil. He also uses hay as a risk management tool against herbicide resistance. (45 mins) + 10 mins Q&A

2.25 – 2.45pm                    Mel Cann, Dept. Agriculture Victoria – Controlled Traffic Farming project learnings from 2 year state-wide paired paddock comparison project (20 mins)

2.45 – 3.00pm                    GRDC (15 mins)

3.00 – 3.20pm                    Afternoon Break (20 mins)

3.20– 4.45pm                     Dr Jonathan Lundgren, Ecologist Brookings South Dakota – Blue Dasher Farm – Natural Cycles and Impacts of Insects: What’s wrong with killing pests? Using insects to your advantage (90 mins)

4.45 – 5.25pm                    Q&A Panel Session – Joshua Dukart, Dr Odette Menard, Dr Jonathan Lundgren

5.25 -5.30pm                      Wrap Up & Close

5.30-6.30pm                       Pre- Dinner Drinks

7.00pm – late                     Gala Dinner – Special Guest Speaker

Book Tickets here: https://trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=197066