The Gerogery national variety trial and agronomy field day has been renamed to honour well known Gerogery district farmer Evan Moll – who had hosted the annual event on his family’s property “Elderslie” for more than 80 years.
Riverine Plains will host the 2016 “Evan Moll Gerogery Field Day” on Thursday, November 3, with support from Murray Local Land Services and Landcare.
Mr Moll, who died in November last year, had a long career in farming and was active in the land care movement, sporting and church activities at Gerogery.
The Moll-family hosted grain trials have been a fixture on the southern NSW cropping events calendar for many years.
“The day is an important event for growers in the region, with one of the key features being the inspection of the cereal and canola varieties included in the Grains Research and Development Corporation national variety trials,” Riverine Plains extension officer Cassandra Schefe said.
“The NVT trials provide an excellent opportunity to assess new varieties prior to their commercial release. Don McCaffery (NSW DPI) will discuss the characteristics of the different canola varieties in the NVT trials, while Peter Matthews (NSW DPI) will lead the cereal NVT discussion.”
The field day also provides an opportunity to discuss the issues that are developing in the lead up to harvest.
“Wet conditions and access issues for windrowing equipment means that many farmers are now considering direct heading their canola,” Dr Schefe said.
“With the maturity of direct-headed canola likely to coincide with the maturity of other crops, there are many practical aspects to consider and Ian Trevethan (Trevethan Farms) and Shane Matthews (Nufarm) will discuss some of these, as well as chemical options for desiccation.
“Many growers have been concerned about how the wet soil conditions have affected plant root development, so we will have two soil pits to look at and discuss.
“We will also be comparing root development in paddocks with different physical constraints.”
Sue Briggs (Murray LLS) will also discuss the results from the “Soil Condition Monitoring Project”.
Other speakers include Adrian Clancy (AC Ag Commodities), and David Leah and Jackson Davis (Seed Force).
