THE all-male Charles Sturt University (CSU) team has clean swept the 2017 Australian Universities Crops Competition (AUCC) held in Temora, New South Wales, this week.
The Charles Sturt University team made a clean sweep at the Australian Universities Crops Competition in Temora, NSW.
CSU student Nick Grant took out first place in the individual category while the team trophy went to the all-male team from CSU.
This year’s competition held at the Farmlink Research Station was greeted with outstanding weather at the start of the week before cooling off with chilly winds.
The crops competition is an annual initiative of national grain farmers’ representative body, GrainGrowers.
The competition puts tertiary agriculture and agribusiness students through their paces in a mixture of theory and hands-on tests covering agronomics and farm business management.
As well as the winning Charles Sturt University (NSW) team, four teams from across Australia also competed, from Sydney University (NSW), La Trobe University (Vic), Melbourne University (Vic) and Curtin University (WA).
GrainGrowers CEO, Michael Southan, said the competition was always a valuable learning opportunity for the university students.
“Crops competition participants are our farm advisers and agronomists of the future,” Dr Southan said.
“In their future roles they will need to apply their skills across numerous properties and regions – wherever their careers may take them.”
Dr Southan said the competition was about students being able to demonstrate their agronomic expertise but also gave them the opportunity to network with industry representatives.
Top 3 2017 Australian Universities Crops Competition winners, Tom Jeffery, Nick Grant and Danyon Williams.
“This year there was an increased focus on connecting students with grains industry representatives including research, government and agribusiness professionals in the interests of developing career pathways and opportunities,” he said.
“A networking lunch and local tour helped to introduce students to potential employers and to broaden their knowledge about broadacre crops.”
2017 AUCC individual winner Nick Grant is a local Temora man who was thrilled to win and said participation in the competition was a highly valuable experience.
“I entered the competition to learn as much as I could and I walked away today knowing that I’ve learnt a lot. Winning is a huge bonus.”
Nick is in his third year of study at Charles Sturt University. After completing his studies, he aims to pursue a career in agronomy or to return to the local Temora family farm which produces broadacre crops.
Nick together with individual runners-up, Danyon Williams and Tom Jeffery, also from CSU, now have the opportunity to take part in the universities crops competition in the United States.
Students inspect canola on GrainGrowers National Policy Group Member Bob McCormack’s farm in Old Junee, NSW, during the Australian Universities Crops Competition tour.
“I’m super excited about competing in the US, as I’ve never been overseas before,” he said.
Dr Southan said the competition, now in its ninth year, continued to go from strength to strength. It was the only such competition in the Australian grains industry.
“It is fantastic that Australia’s major agricultural universities continue to fund and support students to compete. We are also grateful to the students who fund their own travel expenses.”
2017 Competing Universities
University of Sydney
La Trobe University
Charles Sturt University
Curtin University
Melbourne University
Top 3 Individual Winners
- Nick Grant – Charles Sturt University
- Danyon Williams – Charles Sturt University
- Tom Jeffery – Charles Sturt University
Top 3 University Teams
- Charles Sturt University
- University of Sydney
- La Trobe University
Source: GrainGrowers
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