GRDC Podcast

Mar 04 2025 472 ep. 16 mins 66
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Investing in RD&E to create enduring profitability for Australian grain growers

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Farming systems in low and medium rainfall areas of WA

Mar 04 2025 15 mins  
A major farming systems initiative, spanning five years, is underway in the low and medium-rainfall regions of Western Australia. Its aim is to support growers in navigating evolving climatic conditions, enabling them to make informed business and agronomic choices to bolster both on-farm profitability and sustainability. In this episode, we get an overview of the results from th

Crop establishment essentials

Feb 25 2025 12 mins  
Both yield and performance rely heavily on good crop establishment, which is why GRDC is investing in a range of projects to determine the key factors affecting crop establishment. Getting crops established in hot, dry conditions is the focus of this research, which also looks at soil textures and deep sowing across multiple environments. In this podcast we speak to CSIRO farming s

Long coleoptile wheat: Deep sowing seeder set up

Feb 18 2025 13 mins  
In this week's podcast, machinery specialist Jack Desbiolles from the University of South Australia runs through important considerations for seeder set-up when sowing long coleoptile wheat varieties. The work is part of a major national GRDC project, led by CSIRO, exploring integrating long coleoptile wheat into Australian farming systems. Research partners include the Universit

Skills for agronomists to handle tough conversations

Feb 11 2025 20 mins  
Listeners are advised that this podcast contains references to suicide There’s no shortage of stressors in farming, and while crop destruction is often clearly visible, the impact on grower mental health can be less apparent. Although awareness and access to rural mental health services is growing, agronomists can sometimes find themselves on the frontline witnessing or discussi

Grow your own nitrogen: harvestable annual legume options

Feb 04 2025 8 mins  
Significant research is underway to help Western Australian farmers sustain their own on-farm nitrogen factory though growing and harvesting pasture legume seed. The Harvestable Annual Legume Options (HALO) project is a Western Australian Agricultural Research Collaboration project with GRDC investment. It brings together the pasture legume breeding, agronomy and bio-economic mod

What to do - about wheat powdery mildew

Jan 28 2025 18 mins  
Wheat powdery mildew is becoming increasingly difficult to manage, in part because there’s widespread resistance to the available chemicals. So, what to do? It’s a complex matrix of deciding whether it’s worth growing a disease resistant variety which doesn’t yield so well or go with the susceptible variety and hope your fungicides will do the job. There is some hope on th

Getting a jump start on managing 2025 disease risks

Jan 21 2025 12 mins  
Warm conditions across much of Western Australia and variable rainfall in 2024 contributed to mixed levels of fungal disease severity in the State’s cereal, pulse and oilseed crops. With this in mind, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development in Western Australia, with investment from GRDC, is urging growers to start thinking about their integrated disease man

GRDC in Conversation: Merrie Carlhausen

Jan 19 2025 28 mins  
In this episode of GRDC In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre chats with Merrie Carlshausen, a former nurse turned essential advocate for farming communities in Western Australia. Merrie shares her journey from her beginnings in nursing to her work with rural financial counseling and the Liebe Group, where she has facilitated impactful change in farming practices and family dynamics

Getting grain storage right 

Jan 14 2025 14 mins  
Chris Warrick and Alex Conway are part of the GRDC's grain storage extension team. Their task is to help growers with their on-farm storage, as well as undertake development activities to try and understand tools and equipment that can be used to better store grain on-farm. On this podcast episode, Chris and Alex talk about three topics on grain storage - fumigating and venting in

GRDC in Conversation: David Tropiano

Jan 12 2025 22 mins  
In this episode, we sit down with David Tropiano, a grain farmer from Mullewa, WA, as he shares his journey from a reluctant start in farming to running a multi-generational operation. David opens up about the realities of farming in Western Australia, from handling different soil types and the competitive land market to the impact of weather on crops. He also reflects on the evo