MALLEE Sustainable Farming (MSF) is going festive – well after the festive season – with its launch of FarmFEST ’23.
Starting next month and continuing into March, FarmFEST will give Mallee farmers, agricultural consultants and advisers access to a series of workshops and field events.
MSF chair Nicole Byrne says the organisation will be hosting 15 events and hoping to attract not just people from the Mallee but also out of NSW and South Australia.
“FarmFEST is an exciting new approach to promoting and inviting farmers to select one or two key events, where they can gain the latest technical information and research results relevant to their farming business,” she says.
“The events also allow our research partners, such as Michael Moodie from Frontier Farming, to share their expertise and key results coming from on-farm trials and demonstrations.”
Topics to be covered include MSF research updates, developing variable rate technologies for Mallee farms, livestock nutrition updates, practical on-farm demonstrations of new weed smart spray technologies, soil amelioration for the Mallee and more.
According to FarmFEST co-ordinator and project manager Tanja Morgan, “the 2022-23 harvest has been crazy in terms of delays and the extra time taken to harvest some near-record crops for many farmers.”
Tanja says with many soil profiles “almost bursting at the seams” with available soil moisture, farmers will be on the front foot when it comes to sowing the 2023 crop as early as possible.
“As a result of last season’s harvest there is less time to prepare and make critical decisions for the coming season’s crop and livestock program,” she adds.
MSF decided to host the 15 different events in such a short window of time, so farmers could get on with their 2023 cropping program with minimal disruption.
“The FarmFEST program provides a smorgasbord of different events that farmers can simply pick and choose the ones they consider to be most valuable,” Tanja says.
Each event will also include a social aspect, where those attending can have a yarn and “chew the fat” and share their ideas and experiences.
Event information and key “take-home messages” will be made available through the MSF website, social media and printed summaries.
To register for the free events, go to www.msfp.org.au/events and follow the prompts to find out more details and to register online through Eventbrite.
Nicole is also encouraging all farmers and advisers to become members of Mallee Sustainable Farming.
“It’s free and you will have exclusive access to all MSF news, information and advanced notice of our events, simply log onto our website and join up,” she says.
