7 Oct 2107
Exhausted but exhilarated and bursting with excitement. Hope that sums up a huge week here, working ones butt off and burning candles in them. Where does one start? Well with arrival of the family cavalry from South Korea we kicked arse here and got so much done.
Brother-in-law you rock!
The deadline of a Farming Conference was the pushing point to work towards for us, and on 5 Oct 17 at 1300, the Gympie Gold Council ''Farming of the Future" Soil workshop began with gusto. We had started clearing out shed for workshop at beginning of the week, and with harvest season now finished, it was great way to start the Gympie community gatherings that I plan to do here for next year. The press arrived on cue and once paper publishes their blurbs I'll put up the link for you to read.
First speaker for workshop was a soil specialist Andrew McLennan, a Consulting Biological Agronomist, from the Chemical Free Farmers Association. WOW. What a presentation. I am still reeling from the turning point he detailed to audience on how he changed from a chemical farmer to an organic one. Essentially living in a row of houses, surrounded by fields of crops that where sprayed. Residue settling onto house roofs. Rain comes along and washed it into their drinking water tanks!! Yes. Into DRINKING WATER!!
Sounds so grouse, yes? Well what was worse was that this particular row of houses in Mildura (about 15) had over 6 cases of cancer recorded for row. Not much more needs adding to that I reckon.
Andrews' knowledge was clearly real and he knew his stuff. Understanding how chemicals affect the productivity of soil versus nutrition levels of food grown in it was the most brain awakening moment for me though. With over spraying of nitrogen based products which then depletes the carbon quantity of food bearing soil, thus affecting nutrition in that food grown. Does "nutrient density'' sound a familiar term?? Anyway a quick look at his website will give you more detail;
https://www.chemicalfreefarmers.org.au/
Second speaker was a drone expert - so that was good for me. Alun Morgan is an Engineer from company Acre Insight, and his talk centred upon aerial mapping and photography, so that it can be used to assist in farm management. This is obviously very useful for the bigger properties, but here its still beneficial and something I need to do some more research into. Here is his link;
http://acreinsight.com.au/
The third speaker was Phillip Tickle from The Spacial Hub. He was all about the software, so right up my street too. How to manipulate the farming data to best effect, analysing details for 30 years from satellite feed to determine better practices. This is primarily suited to graziers, but I can definitely see potential within an orchard setup as well. Check his site out for those nerdy ones;
http://www.nrmhub.com.au/
And then to top off the afternoon we got spoilt rotten with a fabulous BBQ cooked by local celebrity chef on the Sunshine Coast, Matt Golinski! - and that's the wrap from the conference.
Exhausted but exhilarated and bursting with excitement. Hope that sums up a huge week here, working ones butt off and burning candles in them. Where does one start? Well with arrival of the family cavalry from South Korea we kicked arse here and got so much done.
Brother-in-law you rock!
The deadline of a Farming Conference was the pushing point to work towards for us, and on 5 Oct 17 at 1300, the Gympie Gold Council ''Farming of the Future" Soil workshop began with gusto. We had started clearing out shed for workshop at beginning of the week, and with harvest season now finished, it was great way to start the Gympie community gatherings that I plan to do here for next year. The press arrived on cue and once paper publishes their blurbs I'll put up the link for you to read.
First speaker for workshop was a soil specialist Andrew McLennan, a Consulting Biological Agronomist, from the Chemical Free Farmers Association. WOW. What a presentation. I am still reeling from the turning point he detailed to audience on how he changed from a chemical farmer to an organic one. Essentially living in a row of houses, surrounded by fields of crops that where sprayed. Residue settling onto house roofs. Rain comes along and washed it into their drinking water tanks!! Yes. Into DRINKING WATER!!
Sounds so grouse, yes? Well what was worse was that this particular row of houses in Mildura (about 15) had over 6 cases of cancer recorded for row. Not much more needs adding to that I reckon.
Andrews' knowledge was clearly real and he knew his stuff. Understanding how chemicals affect the productivity of soil versus nutrition levels of food grown in it was the most brain awakening moment for me though. With over spraying of nitrogen based products which then depletes the carbon quantity of food bearing soil, thus affecting nutrition in that food grown. Does "nutrient density'' sound a familiar term?? Anyway a quick look at his website will give you more detail;
https://www.chemicalfreefarmers.org.au/
Second speaker was a drone expert - so that was good for me. Alun Morgan is an Engineer from company Acre Insight, and his talk centred upon aerial mapping and photography, so that it can be used to assist in farm management. This is obviously very useful for the bigger properties, but here its still beneficial and something I need to do some more research into. Here is his link;
http://acreinsight.com.au/
The third speaker was Phillip Tickle from The Spacial Hub. He was all about the software, so right up my street too. How to manipulate the farming data to best effect, analysing details for 30 years from satellite feed to determine better practices. This is primarily suited to graziers, but I can definitely see potential within an orchard setup as well. Check his site out for those nerdy ones;
http://www.nrmhub.com.au/
And then to top off the afternoon we got spoilt rotten with a fabulous BBQ cooked by local celebrity chef on the Sunshine Coast, Matt Golinski! - and that's the wrap from the conference.
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| Beautiful day for learning |
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| Crowds settling in |
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| The networking in full flow |
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| The celebrity chef for day - Matt Golinski who cooked up a storm with local ingredients from the local shop ''Farmer and Sun", Southside, Gympie. |
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