A lineup of local speakers will speak at CROPS 2024 at Chertsey near Ashburton on November 27.
Topics will range from the best ways to work with new ryegrass cultivars for seed production to mechanical weeding of fence lines as an alternative to spraying with herbicide.
The eight 30-minute talks will be held twice, in the morning and again in the afternoon, so growers can hear all of them.
Other talks will include different sprayers for agri-chemicals and how to get the most out of setting them up, future management options for cereals, greenhouse gas emissions numbers and how arable farming systems impact on them.
Farmers will also be able to inspect other FAR trials at Chertsey.
Chief executive Dr Alison Stewart said the topics were a nice mix of agronomy for optimising seed yields in ryegrass, clover and linseed with technology looking at spray applications and mechanical weeding and environmental developments on carbon cycling and greenhouse gas emissions.
Another talk would look at how FAR thought cereal cropping was going to play out over the decade.
"So it’s very focused on the here and now."
Dr Stewart said growers always liked agronomy developments such as how to manage cereal crops better or optimising their yields.
"The will always want something on that. Equally so, they always love new technology and any new piece of equipment they can put on their combine harvester or tractor they always enjoy.
"They really want us to come along with a new crop opportunity that will give them twice as much money as they are getting at the moment. But the reality is there are just no crops in that space we can offer them. Or they want a new fungicide that will give them an extra tonne of wheat yield, but again it’s just not out there.
"We would love to give them that, but at this moment in time the best things we can do is show them how to manage their existing crops in the most efficient way to reduce inputs, but still maintain their yield."
A challenge was the work to increase yields had been carried out for many years and growers were at the stage it was difficult to extract much more from existing cultivars.
Dr Stewart said no new cultivars were on the horizon for increased yields, so researchers needed to look at resilient cultivars that could withstand extreme weather events such as droughts and low temperatures.
"We are also looking at how growers can reduce their input costs because although yield is king, the reality is when the content of the yield spectrum reduces the input is a key way we can increase profitability.
"It’s possible new cultivars will come on to the market which have been gene-edited to provide increases in yield or improved functionality, but that’s not going to be happening in New Zealand for a wee while yet so we just have to make do with what we’ve got and get back to the basics and make sure we are growing the crops in the most efficient and effective way and looking to see what the market trends are.
"If the dairy sector is doing well that usually means the arable sector will do reasonably well."
A major programme is in place for cereals covering cultivar performances, crop protection and agronomic changes on managing pesticide resistance.
"We can’t afford to lose any of the current high performing chemicals so we want to protect their performance and the best way to do that is by not using them all the time because with some of the other practices we can use them typically under low pest pressure so it’s a different mindset and recognising you have to use a number of different strategies if we want to maintain yields given the fact that pests and diseases are one of the biggest challenges we have in New Zealand in a wide range of arable crops."
Growers understood the importance of mixing agri-chemicals and not relying on one with fungicides, but perhaps less so with herbicides, she said.
"But we will have a programme of work around how we can protect the current herbicides as well."
FAR had the responsibility of doing research so when environmental compliance requirements are introduced the growers have information, tools and technology to respond to changes, she said.
She said growers responded to change more quickly from market demands than new government rules.
"We know that Fonterra have scope three emission targets they were looking at and that would drive behaviour changes in our farmers if they want to sell animal feed into the dairy sector."
In a change from previous years, sponsors’ demonstration sites will be moved to near the main marquee.
Dr Stewart said bringing sponsors to the front paddock would integrate their presentations with research talks.
"We work so closely together with a lot of the companies and industry agencies that we wanted to bring them in as a key part of the event.
"That will make a difference and won’t create a bit of a division between research and commercial."
A New Zealand Arable Production Growth Strategy, "Future Fields 2030", produced by industry groups and the Ministry for Primary Industries, will also be launched at the field day.
Dr Stewart said the strategic plan recognised growers had many different ideas of the direction of their farm businesses and finding key industry wide goals was challenging.
She said a different perspective had been taken rather than second guessing a new crop opportunity, or the future size of the industry or what the market might look like.
The strategy helped growers take advantage of future opportunities by upskilling them to be as business and financially savvy as they could be so they could manage their farm businesses more effectively and open up new opportunities through diversifying.
Investing collectively in new business ventures would also be part of the growth strategy, she said.
