If ever you thought crop farming was easy, a visit to Pacific Seeds Field Day would soon show you the wealth of knowledge our farmers possess and the amazing behind the scenes research and development carried out at Pacific Seeds in an endeavour to give our farmers the latest in seed innovation to help them adapt to changing climatic conditions.
Melvin and Joshua Mengel’s Nobby farm was the scene of Pacific Seeds Field Day last Thursday and farmers turned up in big numbers to hear about the latest in seed development.
Bill Smith, Territory Manager of the Central & Southern Darling Downs for Pacific Seeds, said the Mengels’ ‘Kia-Ora’ property has been the testing farm for Pacific Seeds for over 30 years and their preparation for the Field Day is always first class.
The Mengels have been on “Kia Ora” since the 1880s and young Cameron is the 6th generation of Mengel.
Farmers turned up to view first-hand the new Pacific Seeds summer forage lines and discuss the future directions of summer forage.
Thanks to Melvin and Joshua farmers were able to view first hand the new seed lines developed by Pacific Seeds as numerous strands of the new seed lines were available for inspection as mature plants.
Pacific Seeds’ Wayne Chester explained to the eager audience the various characteristics of the new seed lines some of which have yet to be officially named.
One topic of discussion by Wayne was the collaboration of Pacific Seeds with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) to develop frost tolerant plant species.
On the topic of climate change Wayne said the company was looking 5 to 10 years into the future in development of new seed lines.
Farmers took the opportunity to discuss their summer forage options and gained good feedback on the various trial plantings of sorghum on the Mengel farm.
Other lines of discussion on forage for beef or dairy and corn for grain or silage were also welcomed as was an update on new wheat varieties and Canola grazing varieties “FEAST”.
Bill Smith of Pacific Seeds had numerous presentations to the army of workers who had organised the day and they each received bottles of wine or spirits for their efforts.
Bill didn’t forget lunch and he organised workers from Rabobank to prepare an outdoor barbecue of steak and sausages that was very much appreciated by everyone.
There is no doubt all who attended, be they farmers or agronomists, were impressed by the work of Melvin and Joshua in preparing the strands of test crops and the information passed on by the crew from Pacific Seeds.
Field Days such as this one help keep Australian farmers ahead of their overseas rivals and Pacific Seeds are very much helping Australian farmers adapt to the challenges presented by a changing world.
This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 27 April 2023.
