No matter what crop you grow, or livestock you run, the soil beneath your boots is the foundation of your farm's productivity, profitability, and long-term sustainability. And while soil has always been a cornerstone for grain growers, there's never been a consistent way to define, measure, monitor, or report on soil health in Australia. That's why GRDC has invested in the development of a national Soil Health Framework to close this gap and give growers the tools they need to manage soil more e...
Sep 16, 2025•13 min
Growers around the Eradu area of Western Australia's northern growing region have been deep ripping for many years. Now they're going back and re-ripping for a second, third, fourth, and even fifth time with different machinery as it has progressed over the years. It's all about getting highly alkaline surface soil down deeper in the profile to address subsoil acidity, and at the same time, managing compaction to greater depths. This episode features Craig Topham from Agrarian Management and is ...
Sep 09, 2025•11 min
Fungicide resistance is a serious threat to cropping. When all available registered fungicides are no longer effective at managing disease, options for widespread disease control become limited, and the result is high yield losses. So, when a gateway mutation, the first step toward fungicide resistance in wheat powdery mildew (WPM), was detected in samples collected in Western Australia, alarm bells went off. In this episode we speak to Andrea Hills, research scientist with the Department of Pri...
Sep 02, 2025•10 min
Don't wait until harvest to consider how you are going to protect your stored grain. That's the message from GRDC's stored grain extension team. When it comes to grain storage, the more you invest in pre-harvest preparation, the better the outcome. This episode features Chris Warrick from the Stored Grain Extension Team who talks about the most important strategies to implement. Contact: Chris Warrick Stored Grain Storage Extension Team chris@storedgrain.com.au More Information: 2024 Webinar - P...
Aug 26, 2025•13 min
Do you want to nail those snails in the crop? Well, naming those snails is the first step. In this episode, Prue Adams is in York Peninsula, on the snail trail and speaking with Dr Kym Perry, research fellow in entomology at the University of Adelaide. He goes into detail about the four main snail culprits in crops, how to identify, and what to do about them. Contact: Dr Kym Perry The University of Adelaide 0421 788 357 More Information: Nail The Snails Snail Management Project Investment Code: ...
Aug 19, 2025•11 min
At just one millimetre long, redlegged earth mites are tiny, but that doesn't stop them from causing significant damage across Australia, especially in regions with cool, wet winters. To find out how growers can best manage this pest – we talk to Dr Paul Umina from Cesar Australia. The project ' Leading practice management of the Redlegged earth mite (RLEM)' is a GRDC investment that is led by Cesar Australia alongside other project partners. Contact: Paul Umina Cesar Australia Pumina@cesaraustr...
Aug 12, 2025•14 min
Oli Le Lievre interviews Andrew and Marie Fowler about their innovative farming practices in Esperance, Western Australia. The Fowlers, who met through Andrew's Nuffield Scholarship, have expanded their family farm significantly. They focus on crop-livestock rotations, emphasizing no-till farming and crop grazing. Andrew discusses their current drainage project, which involves installing tile pipes to mitigate waterlogging and improve crop yields. The Fowlers also highlight the importance of com...
Aug 10, 2025•49 min
Justine Baillie and Michael Scobie are the co-leads of the Ag Technology Adoption program at the University of Southern Queensland. They’re trialling and investigating a range of different types of technology to help growers boost crop quality and yield, in a bid to revolutionise farming. The project is providing tools and capacity for drought preparedness through the integration of digital technologies, data management, artificial intelligence and smart machinery including drones. The program i...
Aug 05, 2025•11 min
At GRDC's National Grower Network (NGN) forums, growers have been asking for information about the cost of inorganic P fertilisers and potential lower cost options of organic P fertilisers. A GRDC investment to explore this topic has delivered some interesting outcomes and to find out the details we speak to Maurie Street from the Grain Orana Alliance, and Dr Tim McLaren from the University of Queensland. Contacts: Maurie Street CEO, Grain Orana Alliance maurie.street@grainorana.com.au Dr Timoth...
Jul 29, 2025•20 min
Ash Wiese is a farmer, food producer and agribusiness innovator from Western Australia. In this episode of GRDC In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre sits down with Ash to explore his fascinating journey from studying accounting to returning to his family farm and revolutionising the way grains are marketed. Ash shares insights from his Nuffield Australia Scholarship, highlighting lessons learned from global agricultural leaders and how he applies them to his own farming enterprise. Throughout the...
Jul 27, 2025•56 min
We know Brolga and Kookaburra are great Australian birds but they are also the names of two new, game changing varieties of mungbeans. To find out how growers can access these higher yielding mungbean varieties, we speak to Queensland Department of Primary Industries principal plant breeder, Dr Merrill Ryan. Also during this podcast we talk to Allora grower, Tim Thorne, who is considering the varieties for his next rotation. Contact: Dr Merrill Ryan, Principal Scientist: Crop Genetics QLD Depart...
Jul 22, 2025•17 min
Kate Witham is a research agronomist in Western Australia and has a passion for broad acre cropping. She’s also the 2025 recipient of GRDC'S “Emerging Leader Award” in the West. So far, Kate’s career highlight has been her role as the SLR lead working on GRDC’s Long Coleoptile Wheat project, led by CSIRO. She's a dynamic operator in the industry, helping growers reap the benefits of her ongoing research across agricultural regions of Western Australia, and around the country. Contact: Kate Witha...
Jul 15, 2025•11 min
In this episode of GRDC In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre sits down with Brad Egan, a forward-thinking grain grower from Esperance, Western Australia. Brad shares insights into the evolution of his family farm, the challenges of farming in a changing climate, and how data-driven decision-making is helping to improve productivity despite declining rainfall. From using drones to optimise spraying efficiency to a long-term soil amelioration project that has transformed low-performing soils into s...
Jul 13, 2025•33 min
Precision weed management is where optical sensors and remote and sensor weed mapping systems are used to target weeds and therefore cut herbicide costs. The technology is becoming more widely available, which is why GRDC is investing in a series of case studies, to explore the benefits and costs related to these technologies. With green on brown systems, weeds can be detected in a fallow field. And now there's also green on green technology, which uses an algorithm to differentiate between weed...
Jul 08, 2025•19 min
In Australian canola crops, turnip yellows virus is the one of the most widespread and economically damaging viruses, and over the past decade, epidemics have commonly occurred in different regions causing considerable losses. Turnip yellows virus is particularly challenging to manage because it is transmitted by green peach aphid and needs just a few aphids per plant to cause substantial spread. A GRDC investment led by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development in Western Au...
Jul 01, 2025•15 min
In this episode of GRDC In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre sits down with Callum Wesley, a third-generation farmer from Southern Cross, WA. They discuss Callum’s innovative approach to farming in a low-rainfall zone and his journey collaborating with researchers that has led to a nationwide research project which could revolutionise seeding strategies for dryland farmers across Australia. Callum shares his journey from working in agricultural research to returning home and implementing cutting-...
Jun 29, 2025•45 min
GRDC, CSIRO and University of South Australia have done a lot of work on how to deal with the sandy soil situation. Hot off the back of a huge investment, culminating in a series of workshops in 2023, they're scaling up, taking the machines and expertise to more than 20 farms across the southern region. It's a project with a great deal of grower involvement and targeted to making that sandy stuff work for growers, not against them. In this podcast we speak to CSIRO research team leader, Therese ...
Jun 24, 2025•16 min
A passion for pulses and in particular a love of lentils has inspired the career of research scientist Dr Audrey Delahunty. Growers are already benefiting from Dr Delahunty’s research into genetic solutions for heat tolerance in lentils, and now she's extending into frost quality technology and other pulses. Meantime, Dr Delahunty is also the recipient of this year’s GRDC “Emerging Leader Award” in the South. Contact: Dr Audrey Delahunty audrey.j.delahunty@agriculture.vic.gov.au More Information...
Jun 17, 2025•11 min
Gemma Walker is a mover and shaker in the Western Australian grains industry, literally! If she isn’t moving from a board meeting in one city to the next, she’s flying back home to the family sheep and wool property in Munglinup. Gemma is at the forefront of WA’s ag industry, promoting sustainable practices for the future as well as getting her hands dirty on the farm. In this episode of GRDC In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre speaks with Gemma about her passion for the grains industry. The con...
Jun 15, 2025•46 min
Sclerotinia stem rot is a canola disease that is challenging to manage using rotation due to the wide range of crops that play host to the fungus that causes it. Since there are no Australian canola cultivars with sclerotinia resistance, the disease is usually managed with preventative fungicide sprays at flowering. However, fungicides can be costly, and their return on investment is difficult to predict. In an ideal world, Australian growers would have access to canola cultivars with resistance...
Jun 10, 2025•16 min
Precision weed management is where optical sensors and remote and sensor weed mapping systems are used to target weeds and therefore cut herbicide costs. GRDC is investing in a series of case studies to explore the benefits and costs related to precision weed management technologies. One of those case studies is Warakirri Cropping, one of Australia's largest grain growers with 11 cropping farms across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. We chat to a few of the Warakirri ...
Jun 03, 2025•13 min
Ray Harrington has always had an eye on the battle taking place in the fields of Aussie agriculture, the war on weeds and pests. So, he and a group of like-minded farmers, researchers and innovators took up the torch to solve it once and for all. In this episode of GRDC’s In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre speaks with Ray about his journey to inventing the Harrington Seed Destructor, one of the most effective tools in dealing with weed resistance in the market. In their chat, they cover the sig...
Jun 01, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Sclerotinia in lupin is a sporadic disease found across the WA grainbelt. When weather conditions favour disease spread, it can cause significant loss of yield and grain quality. With GRDC investment, collaborative research by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the Centre for Crop and Disease Management, and the Mingenew-Irwin Group has been looking at ways lupin growers can learn to recognise risky scenarios and employ management strategies to reduce impact of the di...
May 27, 2025•18 min
A GRDC National Grower Network investment, based in Western Australia, has been working to improve knowledge of fallow management and the economic value of fallows in cropping rotations. Through this project, it has been identified that there are four key objectives growers should take into account when considering fallow – profitability, moisture, weeds, and nitrogen. In this episode, Laconik founder Darren Hughes explains that by understanding these objectives, growers will be in the best plac...
May 20, 2025•10 min
Neil Wandel moved to Esperance in 1979 with his wife, one kid, and another on the way. Their operation was a tough lot to crack, but through gumption and careful planning, they navigated the highs and lows of starting a successful farm before becoming Esperance Quality Grains. In this episode of GRDC’s In Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre speaks with Neil on how the many years of working in the grain industry have affected the community of Esperance. Neil shares his story of dropping out of schoo...
May 18, 2025•41 min
Svetlana Micic has spent the past 22 years as an entomologist with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, where she has been an exceptional communicator of GRDC-invested project work around insect pest monitoring, surveillance and integrated pest management. That dedication to ensuring information is shared with those who need it most has led her to be highly respected by growers, agronomists and consultants. It’s also the reason why she was named GRDC’s 2025 Seed of Ligh...
May 13, 2025•15 min
An ambitious GRDC investment, being led by the University of Adelaide, is working to develop new high yielding soybean varieties for a broader range of growing environments. Worth $6 million, this significant investment builds on the achievements of past breeding programs and will accelerate the delivery of new varieties to growers by ‘speed breeding’ - harnessing new technology to improve germplasm evaluation and other key breeding processes. In this podcast, we hear from lead breeder Universit...
May 06, 2025•13 min
Tom Longmire from Beaumont, Western Australia, has dedicated himself to driving sustainability and efficiency on the family farm through innovation. Through combining his learnings from Marcus Oldham College and his experience working farms across Australia, he is discovering exactly how cutting-edge technology and data-driven decision-making can improve the farm for years to come. In this episode of GRDC in Conversation, host Oli Le Lievre chats with Tom about his passion for precision agricult...
May 04, 2025•37 min
Each year, the GRDC Seed of Light Award recognises the outstanding contribution, dedication, and commitment of individuals to communicating research outcomes to people working in the grains industry. At the Goondiwindi GRDC Grains Research Update event in March 2025, Mark Congreve was presented with the prestigious award for his valuable work in the agricultural extension space. Mark is a senior consultant at Independent Consultants Australia Network (ICAN) and in this podcast he shares his thou...
Apr 29, 2025•12 min
Fusarium crown rot in cereals is often associated with a tough finish, but the characteristic whiteheads are far from the full picture. It’s a significant disease with hidden yield impacts even in a good year, so pro-active management at pre-sowing is a must. In this podcast, senior researcher with NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Dr Steven Simpfendorfer shares the latest research and advice to reduce disease impacts. Then, Riverine Plain’s Kate Coffey shares why th...
Apr 22, 2025•19 min
