GRDC Podcast

Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Ross Kingwell   Ross Kingwell has had a long and distinguished career as an agricultural economist, with over 150 published journals and book chapters and 350 conference papers and major policy and industry reports.   In this GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Ross shares years of wisdom in research, science, agro-politics and...

Neil Smith farms at Merredin in Western Australia and after dabbling in chickpeas in the early 2000s, he has now been growing the crop continuously for the past four years.  As president of MADFIG, the Merredin and Districts Farm Improvement Group, Neil is a big advocate of peer-to-peer learning and is a part of the cohort of 'Legume Leaders' that has been established by the Grower Group Alliance,...

🎙️ Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Ben Single  Ben Single, founder of Single Ag, discusses his journey from studying aerospace engineering to developing a weed mapping system using drones. This GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre explores the importance of controlling chemical-resistant weeds in agriculture and the challenges of implementing new technology on t...

Shane Boardman and his family moved from Victoria to northern New South Wales in the late eighties. Not long after their move, they started dabbling in precision agriculture technologies. In the mid-nineties he commissioned an electromagnetic survey of one of his paddocks. At the time, he didn't have the machinery to take the EM data and apply VR technologies. It was when Boardman Ag took over Gle...

🎙️ Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Loretta Serafin  Loretta Serafin is a research agronomist with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. In this GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Loretta discusses her work in the summer grains industry and her passion for providing quality research results to growers.   She talks about her love of plants, the...

Instances of spot form net blotch in barley crops across the low rainfall zones of Western Australia have been increasing in recent years, mainly due to the increased area of barley on barley, and the use of more susceptible varieties in these areas.   A GRDC investment with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is aiming to quantify the yield impact of spot form net blotch...

🎙️ Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Jan Edwards  Jan Edwards is the Director of Agronomy and Ideation at Incitec Pivot Fertilisers. In this GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Jan talks about her varied upbringing in different areas of regional Australia and her following career journey.   Jan has worked in both the private and public sectors and was part of ea...

Variable rate technology falls under the umbrella of precision agriculture and it includes a range of tools that are not only becoming commonplace, but also constantly evolving. New South Wales grower, Mike Smith has been using variable rate technologies for more than 20 years and has some valuable insights. We visit Mike on his property just southeast of Moree, and he explains how technology and...

🎙️ Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Tom and Melissa Andrews  Tom and Melissa Andrews, founders of Connected Farms, discuss the importance of connectivity in agriculture and how it can improve technology adoption, operational efficiency, farm safety and overall well-being. In this GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, The Andrews highlight the role of connectivity...

Wanting to incorporate more legumes into the rotation, West Cranbrook grower Mark Preston has found faba beans were suited to more soil types on his farm than what lupins has been. He did a lot of research before starting to grow the new crop and has found they fit into the operation relatively seamlessly.  Mark is a member of Stirlings to Coast Farmers and is a part of the cohort of 'Legume Leade...

🎙 Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Maurice Hayes. Maurice Hayes pioneered a lot of spray machinery and was involved in the evolution of farming towards zero-till practices.   In this particularly insightful GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Maurice, or ‘Cutter’ as he is well known, shares his remarkable journey in the grains industry, which started off after...

What images or themes come to mind when you think Australian agriculture in 10…20….50 years’ time?   In this podcast Futurist at Work Futures, Reanna Browne, offers up new perspective and practical advice for the grains industry to approach the future as something in the present, not a distant concept. Reanna was the keynote speaker at the recent 2024 Victorian GRDC farm business updates and encou...

Agriculture and plants have been ingrained in Georgie Pengilley’s life since the beginning on a farm in Tasmania. In this GRDC In Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Georgie talks about how her career progressed into agronomic research with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, a PhD and to now as the CEO of the Rice Breeding Australia. Georgie, her father and her husband have...

The Australian soybean industry has received a boost with a new online soybean manual and a series of workshops. The initiatives are part of GRDC’s investment which aims to reinvigorate the soybean industry, particularly in the northern region. The investment is also supporting growers to optimise the production and reliability of soybean yield and also identify the key agronomic practice and futu...

🎙Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with John Woods.  John is a business owner and farmer at his home property ‘Booroola’ in Northern New South Wales. He is well known to many in GRDC circles as the Chair of the Grains Research and Development Corporation.  He is a fun, charismatic person known for his ability to get things done and have a laugh along the way.   In this chat we ch...

GRDC invests in many different approaches to the control of weeds, pests and diseases, including crop protection products.  The world of chemical regulation can be complicated, and GRDC’s role in it is something many growers would like a better understanding of. In this episode, Bencubbin grower and GRDC Western Panel Member Nick Gillett interviews GRDC Manager Chemical Regulation Gordon Cumming a...

At Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, about 200km west of Esperance, field peas seem to grow well on the high pH, high clay content soils of Peter Daw's farm. While getting the legume established in the farming system involved a bit of trial and error, after more than ten years, they are now often Peter's highest gross margin crop.   Peter is a part of the cohort of 'Legume Leaders' that has been...

New research insights suggest that deep sown long coleoptile wheat (LCW) varieties is an effective way to avoid rhizoctonia infection.  It’s one of the many added benefits of LCW emerging as part of a $12.7 million GRDC investment to provide growers with the knowledge and tools to integrate LCW into their farming systems once the genetics become commercially available.   In this podcast we hear al...

The GRDC Emerging Leader Award recognises the commitment of a professional with less than ten years’ experience in the grains industry. At the Adelaide GRDC update event in February 2024, Jana Freebairn (nee Dixon) was presented with the Emerging Leader Award for her work as an agronomy consultant helping deliver benchmarking and on-farm management succession services. Since finishing a Bachelor o...

For the 2024 growing season, some Western Australian growers are chasing moisture deeper than ever before, by successfully planting conventional wheat varieties down to around 60 to 80mm.   This new thinking stems from positive findings from long coleoptile wheat (LCW) research. In this podcast, we hear from Tammin-based grower, Simon York, and SLR agriculture CEO Michael Lamond, on the benefits L...

In the Lake Grace area, grower Ed Naisbitt has been growing lupins on the family farm for 40 years. It was a crop initially established by his father, and one that has remained a constant in the rotation as the years have gone by.  Ed is a part of the cohort of 'Legume Leaders' that has been established by the Grower Group Alliance, with investment from GRDC. These leaders are sharing their insigh...

Long coleoptile wheat (LCW) varieties are proving to be a good insurance policy to ensure emergence in ameliorated soil.   This is one of the many positive findings so far from the national $12.7m GRDC investment to help Australian growers integrate long coleoptile wheat into their farming systems once the genetics are commercially available.  In this podcast, we hear from Dr Stephen Davies from t...

Does the term 'regenerative agriculture' make you want to high-five the farmer next to you, or send you running for the hills? In this week's podcast we talk to Dr Hanabeth Luke (Southern Cross University) and Victorian grain grower and GRDC Southern Panel member Tim McClelland about regenerative agriculture - what it means and what indicators we could use to measure progress towards improved soil...

🎙️ Today's 'GRDC in Conversation' podcast interview is with Steve Madden  Steve Madden has over 30 years experience as an agronomist and is the inventor of an insect management device called Crop Capsule. In this GRDC in Conversation episode with Oli Le Lievre, Steve discusses his career progression, advancements in agricultural technology, using beneficial insects to manage pests in crops, the pr...

The GRDC Emerging Leader Award recognises the commitment of a professional with less than ten years’ experience in the grains industry. At the Perth GRDC update event in February 2024, Robert Harrison was presented with the Emerging Leader Award for his valuable work in legume and pasture agronomy.   Robert is a research scientist at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (D...