Last week on Friday 4 September, more than 50 farmers gathered at the FarmLink Temora Agricultural Innovation Centre to take part in the inaugural FarmLink Field Walks. The day focused on putting agriculture into practice by getting out into the paddocks and seeing different approaches firsthand. FarmLink CEO, Shaughn Morgan said that the response to the field walks was reasonably good for an inaugural event, although it would have been great to see more people but given that this is something that's new compared to previous years the roll-up of farmers was excellent. “As with any day farmers will not know until the morning whether they can turn up because of conditions but those that were there, I think, greatly enjoyed the opportunity to be focused on the trials themselves out in the paddock,” Mr Morgan said. “These were directly relevant to farmers and their farming enterprises and as you know one of the core keys of what an experimental farm like Farm Link is about is to make sure that farmers farms are productive, sustainable and profitable. Farmers were positive about the event, saying that it was a very well organised event and extremely relevant to their farm practice. “Those comments really made it to me worthwhile to move from where we were with the open day to make it more beneficial as a field walk,” Mr Morgan added. “The other great thing about doing a field walk is the fact that these particular trials can't be done on a farmer's property. “There can be residue herbicides that may not necessarily be known the impact of which for a couple of years. So, they can't have it on their paddock.” Some of the field trials featured included intercropping trials, new herbicide and fungicide technologies, satellite technology, and canola Blackleg management. Another feature of the day was presenting Frank McRae with the Life Membership Award to FarmLink to acknowledge the long-standing contributions he has made to agriculture in southern NSW. Mr Morgan said that it was reflective of his commitment to agriculture since his days at NSW Department of Agriculture when he worked at the experimental farm way back then to now, still being a part of not only the formation of FarmLink but continuing to contribute as a board member of the organisation. “His commitment just typifies those who have been involved with FarmLink since its formation in 2004.”
