GRDC offers grain-quality workshops
The Grains Research and Development Corporation is funding two new workshops, for agronomists and farm advisers to better understand and communicate to growers the importance of grain quality from the paddock to processor.
The two-day workshops – titled ‘Paddock to Processor: How farming practice affects your beer and bread’ – will be held in Adelaide, South Australia, on July 22 and 23 and Ballarat, Victoria, on August 5 and 6.
The workshops, supported by Viterra, focus on improving grain quality through agronomy and storage as well as understanding processor and end market requirements.
Workshop participants will hear from industry experts and decision-makers on a range of topics including:
• Achieving maximum grain quality in the paddock, in storage and for processors
• Receival standards – how and why they are set at current levels
• How processors measure grain quality and its importance to their end product
• Current and emerging wheat and barley markets and products
• Genetic and environmental factors impacting grain quality
GRDC southern regional panel chair David Shannon says the workshops are the first technical workshops on grain quality funded by the GRDC.
“This investment reflects the increasing on-farm trend of growers storing grain for sale later in the season. It is becoming more and more important that professionals working with grain growers are able to provide the most up-to-date knowledge and advice in this area,” he said.
“The 2010 grain quality workshops bring together industry experts and decision-makers to outline where the storage of grain on-farm is headed and also the importance of maintaining excellent grain quality to maximise sale opportunities.”
The two workshops include field trips to local processors, including Joe White Malting, Allied Mills and Ceretech Laboratories, to discover how on-farm agronomy impacts their final product.
Presenters include grains quality consultant Gerrard McMullen, feed grains expert John Black, grains storage specialist Peter Botta and Dr Steve Jeffries, Wheat Classification Council.
Each participant will also receive a workshop manual that highlights the latest grain quality research, trends, science and industry information. For those who cannot make it to the workshops, a technical manual of proceedings will be available for purchase in July from the GRDC.
The workshops are open to advisers, on-farm agronomists, consultants and growers with an interest in learning more about the importance of grain quality to processors.
