MILDURA agronomist Michael Moodie has won a Grains Research and Development Corporation industry award for the southern region.
Michael has received the Seed of Light award, which recognises the outstanding contribution, dedication and commitment of individuals to communicating research outcomes to people working in the grains industry.
He was presented with his Seed of Light by GRDC southern panel chair Andrew Russell at the GRDC grains research update in Adelaide.
“Michael has played an enormous role serving the Mallee region as an agronomist,” Andrew says.
“His absolute strength is in the relationships he has built with growers and his ability to listen and learn and to pass on and share knowledge effectively.
“Everybody who talks about Michael does so with a smile – he is held in such high regard across the industry – and he has made a huge difference to growers in a challenging environment.”
Through his close involvement with the Mallee Sustainable Farming group and his Frontier Farming Systems business based in Mildura, Michael has helped lead key research development and extension programs through the South Australian and Victorian Mallee regions, delivering profitable practice change alternatives to growers.
Across the region, Michael has also championed the use of break crops and helped increase the adoption of pulses, which is having a flow-on benefit of increased cereal production and whole-farm profitability.
His passionate involvement in the GRDC-supported sandy soils project has helped deliver field work and demonstrated the relevance of research outcomes with growers and advisors.
In his acceptance speech Michael emphasised the importance of partnerships.
“I really value the partnerships which help get the research done, whether it’s Mallee Sustainable Farming or all the incredible researchers and research organisations we go along with,” he says.
