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  • 3 months ago
GRDC managing director Nigel Hart talks through how changing farming systems have turned bumper crops into the new normal, and what that means for future levy investments.
Transcript
00:00it's not lost on us the you know the very big privilege that we have in the position that we're
00:03in um you know when you compare grdc compared to you know rather rdcs across the system so
00:10um and it's not also not lost on us i mean the deep responsibility comes with
00:14making sure we continue to as we've done for the last 30 years you know get the uh every dollar
00:19invested um yeah that is focused on you know putting our money in growers pockets um you know
00:24with you know there's always you know plenty of people knocking at our door you know they've got
00:28project ideas but their ideas a lot of them that have been around for a while you know they want
00:33to re-prosecute them a lot of them we've said no but we're really looking to continue to identify
00:38those which are going to you know keep you know stepping us forward in terms of you know trying to
00:42improve grow profitability so so that's been the critical thing that we've been doing certainly
00:46over this last uh you know three or four years is to continue to maintain that absolute discipline
00:50of making um you know every dollar count um that we invest on behalf of growers and that's
00:55you know driven by our grower um based um you know panel system um which is quite unique
01:00how do you make the judgment calls regarding perhaps stuff that's potentially more specific to
01:05um the respective zones you know summer cropping it's an obvious one and you know probably a
01:11great benefit to northern new south wales and coins there but maybe not so so that western
01:15australians or victorians yeah so i think first thing to talk about is just about the split of where the
01:20the levees come from and roughly over time they're about a third a third a third
01:23and we often see you know that western australia will say well we're the biggest state well yes
01:27you're the biggest state but uh when you actually talk about regions so with the western region is
01:31about is about eight or nine million hectares the southern region which comprises um south
01:37australia and victoria is about eight nine million hectares and as is the north you know northern
01:40new south wales and queensland so you've actually got to compare apples with apples so the first
01:44thing we do is we actually point to regions are roughly equal to the same size they roughly um
01:49you know sort of contribute about the same amount the north is with the summer crop is you know
01:53edges you know in in not last year but in most years it edges a little bit ahead of um
01:58uh the
01:59west but by and large it's pretty much even across the board what was previously regarded as a bumper
02:03crop sort of becoming the new normal you know but we work on you know working on say a 60
02:08million
02:08becoming more often not that obviously has implications for your levies and how do you sort of see yourself
02:14spending that responsibly over time um you know this year it may well we may see a dip in production
02:20based on what we're seeing in the products of the present but by and large we're growing a lot more
02:25grain a lot more often yeah yeah no we we certainly are and it's isn't a great testament to you
02:31know
02:31farmers and how they're changing and adapting their farming systems and yeah again you look at you look
02:35at the spread of the diversity of crops which is helping to drive that as well you look at the
02:39canola area which has been growing the break crop uh you know effect and impact that that provides
02:43um yeah the area planted the wheat you know it's obviously down you know it was once upon a time
02:47now if you plan years ago about 60 percent now it's you know 40 percent so you've got you know
02:51more canola pulses you know barley uh oats and other crops you know where farmers are you know trying to
02:56sort of look at you know placing the most profitable option for them in their farming system so yeah look
03:01i
03:01mean yeah and and all the work that people have been in around zero till you know control traffic farming
03:05and and uh yeah basically keeping your weeds out of your crops in summer um you know and storing retaining
03:10moisture
03:13superficial information so that we want to see the
03:13If i do leave the different environmental problems
03:14provost alternator���onٹ
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