Field Day at Bywong, Canberra

Field Day Announcement - Thursday 2nd November 2006

‘Effects of phosphorus and surface-applied lime on production and sustainability of wool on the NSW tablelands’

This field day will be held at Bywong (30 km north of Canberra, about 6 km north of Sutton on Queanbeyan- Gunning road) and will inspect & discuss the results of a major soil fertility project run over the past 8 years. The project was originally started by Acid Soil action in 1998 and since 2004 has received support from AWI.

The field day will discuss the results of the trial and cover:

1. Soil status (pH, Al, P etc) over the period 1998-2005;
2. Pasture composition & yield over the period 1998-2005;
3. Sheep and wool production
4. Using PBI (phosphorus buffer index) to improve fertiliser P application efficiency (Richard Simpson, CSIRO);
5. Pasture establishment studies.

For more information, please contact Mark Norton, NSW DPI at Canberra (Phone 02 6246 5548 or the Southern Tablelands Branch of the Grassland Society of NSW.

Remember the date - Thursday 2/11/06 for a very informative look at soil fertility, pastures and sheep production. Field day starts at 2:00 pm.

Profitable Production from Modified Native Pastures

• Where are these pastures best suited?
• What management practices are appropriate?
• Can they be fertilised?
• Is fertilising modified native pastures sustainable?
• What livestock enterprises can be run?
• Can they be profitable?
• Are Reactive Phosphate Rock products a useful alternative to single superphosphate?
  

Want to know the answers to these and other questions?

• Come to an afternoon field day at Angela & Howard Sinclair’s property “Amaroo” 5 kms east of Newbridge on the Rockley road.
• Inspect the paddocks that have received different rates and types of fertiliser for the last 2 years. Paddocks have been continuously recorded to monitor pasture production, composition, persistence of the native perennials, livestock production and economics.
• A booklet outlining results will be provided. Speakers will include Howard Sinclair, Bruce Clements and Michael Keys.
• Afternoon tea provided.

When: Thursday 26th October, 2006 at 1 pm - 4 pm

Directions: follow the field day signs from Newbridge or turn west, along the Rockley road towards Newbridge from the Goulburn road, 32kms south of Bathurst/ 25kms north of Trunkey Creek (at a field day sign).

RSVP by Friday 20th October to:-
Michael Keys at NSW DPI, Queanbeyan. Phone: 6297 1861 Fax: 6299 4215
or Bruce Clements, NSW DPI, Bathurst. Phone: 6330 1200 Fax: 6332 1458

AgQuip

Just a reminder that AgQuip is coming up very soon. Mark these dates in your diary: 22nd to 24th August 2006 for the largest agricultural field day in the Southern Hemisphere. Held at Gunnedah each August, this is a major event in the agricultural calendar.

Visitors can visit the NSW DPI at site E/F 16-17 for information on conservation farming, weeds, tropical grasses, fisheries, NLIS, PROfarm and Tocal courses, feed, soil, water and insect testing services. Purchases can be made from the NSW DPI bookshop. Forests NSW site is located at C/D 39 where plants and tube stock can be purchased.

Many other sites of interest to the grazier and farmer including machinery dealers, seed merchants, research and advisory organisations and much more. Dont miss it!

cheers for now from the Web Team

New Green Book

The 2006-2007 edition of the NSW Pasture Variety Guide is now out. Otherwise known as the "Green Book", this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in pasture development. This guide provides information on species and varieties/brands of pasture grasses, legumes and some herbs used in pastures.

Pasture Varieties used in NSW
2006-2007

This book was compiled by Bev Zurbo (Pasture Liaison Officer, NSW DPI, Wagga Wagga) and published jointly by NSW DPI and The Grassland Society of NSW Inc. This publication replaces the previous 2004-2005 edition and contains information on currently available varieties.

Please note that this is a very large pdf file (about 3.5 MB) so we suggest that you right-click on the link above and "Save Target As" to download it directly to your computer.

Cheers for now from the Web Team

Other Blogs of Interest

Some of you may know a lot of blogs and others might be wondering just what it all means. Put simply, blog is shorthand for web log or in other words, a kind of online diary. Blogging is an incredibly versatile way of participating in and using the internet as an active communication medium.

Blogs are set up for all sorts of reasons - this one for the NSW Grassland Society is used as to make news announcements and as a place where we can put snippets of information that might be of interest. Anyone can join the "blogosphere" by either writing, reading, subscribing to and/or commenting on a blog. If you ignore this new phenomenon of blogging, you are missing out on a huge chunk of the internet so let's have a look at the basics:

Searching the Blogosphere
There are literally millions of blogs out there so how do you find something of interest ? Here are some suggestions:

• Google Blog Search - basic search using the Google system
• Technorati - up to date monitoring of popular topics with advanced searching
• del.icio.us - strange name but building a community using tags & bookmarks

Subscribing to a Blog
Once you have found a blog that you would like to keep reading, you can usually subscribe to it so you are automatically notified of any updates. This can be done in a number of ways - posts sent to your email program, update notifications or by using a specialised newsreader program or website. Here are a few that we use ourselves (there are many more out there): Feedburner, Technorati, and Bloglines (all free to register).

Becoming a Blogger
Anyone can start their own blog - there are a range of options but for those on a tight budget, we recommend Blogger or Wordpress (both are completely free of charge). Sign up and in a few minutes you can start writing. Alternatively, you may like to comment on blogs written by other people - look for a comments section at the bottom of each article (or post). Make your thoughts known to the world. By the way, the Grassland Society of NSW welcomes comments so feel free to add your feedback.

Agricultural Blogs
Just to get you started, here are a few different types of blogs that that might be of interest to those in the agricultural industries.

• Rational Agriculture - UK based blog about science in agriculture
• Agriculture Resources - collection of links in blog format
• Environmental News Network - Food & Agriculture headlines
• Life on the Pea Harvest - a quirky diary of a Birds Eye agricultural manager describing this years pea crop (in England)
• Diary of a Carbon Farmer - written by a consultant/farmer at Gulgong, NSW
• LandHear - blog about sustainable land management in Australia
• Pasture Perfect Produce - blog about an organic farm producing pork in NSW

These are not in any particular order - just a sampling of the different types of blogs that are out there (some obviously are more relevant or reliable than others). Of course, you will find blogs on any subject you would like to think of so get searching and link up with those of similar interests. Or you may be inspired to set up your own.

Hope this has been of some interest and explains why the Grassland Society of NSW maintains a blog in conjunction with its website. Stay tuned for a post about this year's conference - not quite as good as being there yourself but definitely the next best thing.

Cheers for now from the Web Team.