Southern Growers’ 80ha farm near Finley includes numerous irrigation methods, including overheads, rice layouts, border check and beds in bays.
Stephanie Chappell, the daughter of grain growers and a champion for agricultural research and development in the southern Riverina, is the executive officer for Southern Growers.
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“NSW DPI used to have district agronomists in every region that would supply farmers with all the information about risks and agronomic advice,” Ms Chappell said.
It was done well, but when the service was centralised to Wagga, there was a void created. Southern Growers is a grower group based in the Murray Irrigation footprint that has filled that void.”
Started in 2012 by what Ms Chappell describes as an active board, Southern Growers is run as a not-for-profit organisation headed by chair Geoff McLeod.
The group’s mantra is to help farmers generate the most returns per megalitre of water.
“All Murray Irrigation Limited C-class shareholders are automatically members of Southern Growers. That means, anyone who owns general security entitlements can benefit from the research we’re carrying out in the MIL region,” Ms Chappell said.
With a whole-farm approach to trial work, Southern Growers decided it needed a farm.
In 2019, with the help of federal funding, they secured a long-term lease of what was the 80ha Sunrice buffer farm, just outside Finley.
Thanks to grant funding, Southern Growers has turned the farm into a focal point of the region with irrigation layouts including overhead and various surface methods — rice layouts, border check and beds in bays.
“Having the farm has made a huge impact because we can provide localised demonstration for adoption. Without ground-truthing and researching outcomes, for our climate and our soil types, you’ll never convince farmers to try something,” Ms Chappell said.
Topics covered to date include summer forage crops, optimising irrigated grains, whole farm irrigation automation and cost benefit analysis, grain storage, double cropping and nitrogen banking.
Southern Growers has also been looking to counteract the costs of inputs, seeing if using vetch as part of a rotation will reduce the reliance on fertiliser.
“Our members call us and ask if work has been done on a specific issue. I’ll talk to our key stakeholders GRDC, Department of Agriculture, Agrifutures, Murray Dairy and Local Land Services. If nothing has been done then we co-design a project with the likes of organisations such as Irrigated Cropping Council, Riverine Plains and IREC (Irrigation Research and Extension Committee), source funding and get answers for our farmers,” Ms Chappell said.
Sefton Agronomics has played a key role in the management of the Southern Growers farm assisting with crop husbandry of trials and advice.
“This year we have a trainee agronomist, James McCaw, a Finley local, who is doing regular work at the trial site. For the local ag industry, it’s a win-win, it helps James with his training and we assist in keeping local talent coming back to the district,” Greg Sefton, from Sefton Agronomics, said.
This collaborative approach to irrigation farming means more farmers have access to more resources.
“We are knowledge sharers, rather than knowledge hoarders. We want the investments from research development companies because when we work together, we can make a bigger impact and undertake more research for our growers,” Ms Chappell said.
Southern Growers executive officer Stephanie Chappell says the group’s main aim is to help farmers generate the most return per megalitre of water.
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