Speaking at an oat industry field day in Chatton, near Gore, earlier this month, Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) business operations general manager Ivan Lawrie, of Christchurch, said there was rising interest in arable crops in Southland.
The applied research organisation was launching "a small arable hub" in the Gore region which it hoped would be working within about two months.
The hub would include demonstration trials and investigate suitable crops for the region, including those for rotation.
He hoped a field day would be held at the new hub site next year.
A core objective of FAR was to provide research information to New Zealand arable farmers to grow sustainable, profitable and healthy crops.
That involved reducing the amount of inputs — such as fertiliser and other chemicals — needed to grow these crops, he said.
"It aligns well with the general trend of what our market surveys are telling us and what consumers are looking for."
The organisation was a participant in the "A Lighter Touch" programme.
The seven-year programme, launched in April 2020, aimed to address meeting consumer demands for food produced using management practices with a lighter touch on the environment.
"The main aim of that is using the minimum possible and still achieving the required yields to make the returns the growers need."
The organisation, with assistance from the New Zealand Oat Industry Group, produced a basic booklet on "growing oats for non-oat growers".
"This is a means of getting a very quick introduction on how-to, who to engage with and where to seek further information," Mr Lawrie said.
Crop growers had been put under pressure this season by maize pest fall armyworm as well as weed black-grass that appeared in Canterbury last year "and we are still dealing with a small group of growers who have unfortunately been landed with that weed".
He asked people visiting different farms to ensure they did not introduce pests and weeds to crops.
Farmers should record who visited their properties and know where those people had been to try to prevent pest introduction.
