MCA Ag director Tim Richards addresses the Growing Connections event held at Toowoomba’s Royal Hotel last night.

GROWING Connections events on the Darling Downs this week brought around 60 early-career agronomists, researchers and students together to meet and learn from each other and senior peers.

An initiative of Crop Consultants Australia, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, and supported by CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, the two-day program involved a workshop, field walk and networking event.

Those registered included agronomy undergraduates and Masters students, university and departmental researchers and extension officers, and agronomists working in the private sector.

The learning events were focused on in-paddock agronomy basics which can assist clients to make better-informed decisions within their farming systems.

“We were looking at a purely systems approach for growers based on crops and sequences that can get you away from the biggest amount of problems,” MCA Ag director Tim Richards said.

Working in groups, those relatively new to agronomy were able to run through what could be suggested for a particular paddock based on factors including plant-available water, seasonal outlook, and herbicide options.

McGregor Gourlay Goondiwindi agronomist Carissa Horsey said the workshops provided a chance to discuss options with peers involving winter crops, summer crops, and fallow based on factors such as recent or forecast rain, or plant-available water.

The two-day event was the first of its kind, and was designed to upskill participants on back-to-basics agronomy principles.

Isaac McDonald from Qld Produce Distributors, Toowoomba, AGK Services director Doug McCollum and UniSQ researcher Dr Alison McCarthy.

Liberty Fields Pork, Monto, farmer and soon-to-be undergraduate Tyson Jarvis and Qld Department of Primary Industries extension officer Henry Baskerville.

Goondiwindi agronomists Amber Whibley, MCA Ag, and Madison Dorrough, CGS, with Southern Queensland Landscapes sustainable ag facilitator and project officer Piper Beaton, Goondiwindi.

Darling Downs agronomists Rob and Graham Boulton, Black Earth Agronomy, and Felton-based consultant Iain Macpherson, Macpherson Ag.

University of Queensland Masters student Tong Li and undergraduate Montana Sanderson with agronomist Sarah O’Donohue, Meremley Ag Services, St George.

Elders Miles agronomist Nirav Ramasar and Nufarm business development manager for Central Qld and Bundaberg Leo Boden.

MCA Ag agronomists Sarah Gant, Chinchilla, and Lucia Arzubi, Goondiwindi, with UQ undergraduate Lucas Wells.

Crop Consultants Australia executive officer Janet Barker, McGregor Gourlay Goondiwindi agronomist Carissa Horsey, and MCA Ag director Tim Richards.

Cotton Grower Services agronomic lead Jamie Street and Qld Department of Primary Industries researcher and extension officer Paul Grundy.

MCA Ag agronomists Finn Whiteside, Chinchilla, and Patterson Bowler, Goondiwindi, with Brisbane-based AgNova Technologies area sales manager Scott Sheppard.

UQ Gatton dairy farm hand Lucie Okill with UQ undergraduates Abby Piper and Reuben Waugh.

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