Farmers and their advisers, naturally, are mostly focused on growing better grain – finding those incremental improvements that can often mean so much to the bottom line of farming businesses. But there are people also working at the other end of the grain trail – a long way from the farm – focused on improving market access and even developing new and innovative grain products to make Australian grain more valuable to customers. One such story is the work being undertaken by AEGIC – the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre – on making changes to the way Australian malting barley can be used by Chinese beer makers.

Esperance Port Zone grain grower Neil Wandel has been including faba beans in his crop rotations for 4 decades. While they might not be the highest value legume he could grow, the range of benefits faba beans bring to his paddocks make them a favourite rotation crop.

The complexity of agriculture would lead some people to label farming as a form of art. Working with the climate, the landscape, the machinery, the crops, the business … the list goes on. Somehow synthesising all the elements that go into making a modern farm and coming out the other end with a profitable enterprise. And doing it year after year. It’s no wonder farmers need to be resilient. In the first of two parts agricultural consultant, Chris Minehan, talks about having a resilient business – what that means and how to achieve it.

In this podcast Professor Ary Hoffman from the University of Melbourne reveals DNA technology has enabled researchers to make great advances in understanding the Redlegged Earth Mite and how resistance to pesticides has evolved.

Trials undertaken on the Riverine Plains testing early sowing times for both spring and winter wheat varieties have produced some interesting results, particularly around moisture requirements at sowing. At the other end of the season, it’s all about avoiding the frost window during flowering and also spreading out flowering dates. On this podcast FAR Australia researcher Michael Straight talks about the trials which compared the performance of common winter and spring varieties grown on the Riverine Plains.

GRDC’s Pulsecheck program aims to introduce growers who are new to growing pulses to all the challenges and rewards to be had by diversifying into these increasingly popular grains. So, what’s Pulsecheck all about? This podcast we hope will convince you to check your pulses.

Oats has a wonderful reputation amongst consumers, especially those in Asia, as a very healthy product. So it makes sense to find more ways to present oats to those consumers. And that is exactly what the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre is doing developing new products such as oat-based rice and oat-based noodles. On this podcast we speak to one of the very enthusiastic people behind this research that is adding extra value to the humble oat.

Just how quickly, as farmers, we can change the nature of weeds is perfectly spotlighted by how quickly barley grass and brome grass have reacted to our attempts to control them in cropping paddocks. On this podcast Associate Professor Gurjeet Gill explains how these grasses have learned to adapt to control methods and are now lasting longer in the seedbank than they were just 20 years ago.

Field Peas can be problematic for WA growers to grow, but a simple management practice could change that. Dr Sarita Bennet from the Centre for Crop and Disease Management in WA has trialled using cereal stubble as a form of trellis for the field pea plants to climb. While broadacre trials are needed, Dr Bennett says the early results are positive.

Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior researcher Mark Seymour and Esperance Port Zone grain grower Ron Longbottom feature in this podcast about Lentils. In WA growers have been cautious about including this pulse in their cropping program because of variable yields and harvesting challenges. However new lentil varieties and modern harvester fronts have made the lentil a more viable option in cropping systems.

Barley grass in the southern cropping region is becoming more prominent as a problem weed for croppers – as herbicide resistance emerges and as the plant evolves develops new behaviours. A region wide series of trials is taking place, including work being carried out at Birchip in western Victoria by the Birchip Cropping Group, with the overall project being overseen by weed and cropping specialist, Associate Professor Gurjeet Gill from the University of Adelaide.

How do you take soil samples from your paddocks? A leading soil scientist maintains that many farmers are leaving a lot of valuable information buried in the paddock, which could be easily accessed with a slightly different approach to sampling. On this podcast, Jason Codon invites you to look at soil sampling with soil variability in mind.

And you thought you were responsible for that amazing wheat crop. Think again. There are people in back offices all over Australia who know the seed you sow, infinitely better that you could hope. These are the people of SAGI – Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry. The name does not even hint what SAGI does. Take a listen and find out about the best friends you will ever have in the grains industry.

They may be tiny but the damage they can potentially do is far from small. Root Lesion Nematodes are well known as a problem, but there is still much to learn about them and their impact on crops. A new investment by GRDC aims to fill in some knowledge gaps in parts of WA and develop further options for growers seeking to better control the nematodes if they are proving a problem in individual paddocks.

Trials in Western Australia are showing how well canola can out compete ryegrass if some simple management changes are made. At a trial site in Kojunup, that was blanketed in ryegrass plants, adjusting seeding rates, seed size and row spacing had a dramatic impact on ryegrass plant numbers.

Growers with acid soils know full well the risks involved in growing pulses. While new acid tolerant rhizobia are on the way, this podcast focusses on giving you an insider’s view on getting the best performance from your pulses growing in acidic soil.

A leading soil scientist has argued for a more strategic approach to nitrogen application. One way of doing that is by increasing soil carbon levels. But the CSIRO’s Jeff Baldock goes one step further and argues that putting a value on soil organic carbon would encourage farmers to grow more legumes.

Crop competition is one of the key pathways to controlling unwanted weeds in your paddocks. On this podcast we look at one trial in Western Australia that is testing crop competition against prolific ryegrass populations, proving that out-competing weeds really works. The trial is also looking at the pre-emergent herbicide degradation, particularly in dry times. AHRI’s Mike Ashworth provides some food for thought.

How economically viable is incorporating organic matters into your sub-soil? That’s what new research funded by GRDC is trying to ascertain. While it’s been long understood that some sub-soils constrain root growth, just how that could be feasibly addressed has been sticking point. On this podcast Dr Roger Armstrong from Agriculture Victoria discusses ways sub-soil constraints may be overcome.

Nick Gillett from the WA’s eastern wheat belt has been making use of carbonate rich soils from his own farm to correct the pH of his farm’s acidic soils, rather than truck-in coastal. An option that saves freight costs, which can then be put towards spreading more of his farm sourced lime over more hectares to improve his soils and crop yields.

The Australian Grains Genebank at Horsham is a critical stop along the long development pathway to deliver new varieties that will increase the profitability of Australian grain growers. On this podcast we go deep inside the facility to see how it works and to learn more about the role of the Australian Grains Genebank plays in your industry. It’s a fascinating story.

The speed at which weeds develop resistance to herbicides makes farmer vigilance if paramount importance. On this podcast, weed scientist, Dr Chris Preston reveals the current resistance status of both grass and broadleaf weeds.

Trials are underway in Western Australia to measure the suitability of Flax (or Linseed) as a viable and profitable break crop in systems that have few other alternatives, at the moment. Flax has been grown in WA’s sandy soils in the past but was dropped for the system when a market disappeared. On this podcast Bronwyn Copestake from Southern Dirt talks about the trials and also potential markets for this new crop that could deliver a lot more diversity for WA farmers.