FARMERS, agricultural consultants and advisors from across SA, Victoria and NSW are invited to attend workshops and field events currently being held in the Mallee.

Mallee Sustainable Farming’s (MSF) new initiative, FarmFEST ’23, started on Monday, February 13 and will run until this Friday, March 3, with topics covered including MSF research updates, developing variable rate technologies for Mallee farms, livestock nutrition updates, practical on-farm demonstrations of new weed smart spray technologies, soil amelioration for the Mallee and more.

“FarmFEST ’23 is an exciting new approach to promoting and inviting farmers to select one or two key events where they can gain the latest technical information and research results relevant to their farming business,” said MSF’s board chair Nicole Byrne.

“Mallee Sustainable Farming are proud to host over 15 different events across three states. The events also allow our research partners such as Michael Moodie from Frontier Farming to share their expertise and key results coming from on-farm trials and demos.”

The 2022-23 harvest “has been crazy in terms of delays and the extra time taken to harvest some near-record crops for many farmers”, according to MSF FarmFEST ’23 co-ordinator and project manager Tanja Morgan.

“With many soil profiles almost bursting at the seams with available soil moisture farmers will be on the front foot when it comes to sowing the 2023 crop as early as possible,” she said.

“As a result of last season’s harvest there is less time to prepare and make critical decisions for the coming season’s crop and livestock program. 

“MSF decided to host the 15 different events over a short window of time, so that farmers could get on with their 2023 cropping program with minimal disruption. 

“The FarmFEST ’23 program provides a smorgasbord of different events that farmers can simply pick and choose what events they consider to be most valuable. Each event will also include a social aspect where those attending can have a yarn, ‘chew the fat’ and share their ideas and experiences from the event.

“Of course, information and key take home messages will be made available through the MSF website, social media and printed summaries.”

All events are free to attend. Registration can be made by visiting the MSF website and following the prompts for more information and registration through Eventbrite.