Mr Prance, from Victor Harbor in South Australia, replaces Amy Rush in the role and says the society is in prime position to link farmers with research they can use in the paddock.
His top priority is to revitalise local branches and broaden the society’s membership base.
The society has branches in South Australia’s Limestone Coast and in Western Victoria, Central Highlands, Albury-Wodonga, Mid Goulburn and Gippsland.
“After the pandemic, we want to get all branches up and running and holding events that provide valuable information to local farmers and agricultural consultants,” Mr Prance said.
“I will be working with our new executive officer Bill Fuller to make sure they are reactivated.”
While traditionally appealing to a membership base of graziers and sheep and beef farmers, Mr Prance wants to see more dairy farmers involved with the society.
“All farmers can learn from each other,” he said.
“Just like high rainfall sheep and beef farmers, dairy farmers are all trying to grow and utilise more grass than they already are and a high percentage of home-grown fodder is an important contributor to profitable dairies.”
Mr Prance also hopes to collaborate with other like-minded groups working in the field and activate more on-farm research and demonstrations run by the Society. “We want to access funding to do more on-farm demos so we can generate our own information to feed to members,” he said.
This is Mr Prance’s second term at the helm of the society. He has been a member since 1983, joined the board in August 2009, was president in 2011-12 and was honorary treasurer from 2016 to 2021.
For the past 15 years, he has run T Prance Rural Consulting, specialising in consulting in pastures and grazing management and livestock production from pastures.
While many things have changed, Mr Prance said in his 40 years as a GSSA member, the society had retained its important role in southern Australia’s agricultural world as a conduit for information exchange and a place to meet like-minded people.
“It’s a very important link between research and the application of that research in the paddock and as an information conduit between farmers from different parts of southern Australia.
“We need to make sure that information flows from region to region and also from where the work is being done, such as universities and private seed companies.
“There’s still a lot of interesting stuff happening in agriculture.”
For more information, go to: www.grasslands.org.au/
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