IT'S a repeated message, but most important - farmers need to manage herbicides carefully and wisely, particularly glyphosate, which is under constant attack worldwide.
That was a strong message from agronomist, Paul Parker, Young, who has been the judge of wheat crop competitions for decades and has inspected tens-of-thousands of crops in his agronomy career.
The returning judge to the 2019 Agricultural Societies Council/Suncorp Bank Dryland Field Wheat competition, alerted some 60 growers during the annual competition awards presentation night at Club Dubbo earlier this month.
Glyphosate
Mr Parker reiterated his warning when citing Thailand's recent reversal on its ban of glyphosate.
"We are all aware of the court cases in the United States, and tragically, when you look closely at the transcripts of the two major cases, it was the legal teams pulling on the heartstrings of the juries to get a decision," he said.
"And, they totally ignored all the scientific evidence which at this stage tells us that glyphosate is safe.
"But we need to keep that in mind so we can keep that product in our system and continue to use it wisely and carefully so that it is around to do jobs we want it to do."
Mr Parker said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the excellent weed management shown by all growers in crops he judged despite the dry conditions impacting on wheat spraying operations.
"All growers are aware of the issues of herbicide resistant weeds and are taking active management decisions to ensure they don't get out of control and become a significant problem."
Disease
Crown rot was observed in all crops with those in the north of the state being the most affected, Mr Parker said of his observations.
"Even despite the use of fallows and excellent rotations," he said.
"This leads me to say there is a lot researchers have still to learn about crown rot and its impact and how it carries over to impact the next crop."
Mr Parker said he was surprised there was not as much of the disease that he anticipated, even though it was observed in every crop.
"As we know, crown rot is a disease of dry seasons, so I was anticipating seeing a lot more.
"But good management of growers despite the conditions being favourable for the disease helped keep it in-check."
Mr Parker said he found some common root rot in a number of the crops.
"That's not surprising, given it is also a disease more prevalent in dry seasons, especially where moisture stress occurs later in the season such as 2019."
Not luck
The 2019 cropping season was very difficult with the severe drought conditions impacting all regions, Mr Parker said.
"Not only did many crops fail due to the lack of moisture, but many were cut for hay, and for many of those growers that was a good decision because they were able to make some money.
"In addition to the lack of rain, in some districts there was also a bit of frost during flowering giving a double-whammy with the dry seasons and the frost."
Despite these problems, Mr Parker said he was "amazed" at the overall standard of crops he judged, given the conditions he saw and the growers experienced.
"This was all due to the excellent management that you growers do to your crops to ensure that you get through," he said.
"Some people talk about luck in farming. They say someone was lucky to be under a fall of rain.
"I don't believe in luck being part of farming. It all comes down to being a good manager."
Mr Parker said you make your own luck because of your management.
"And that's what all of you (in the room) have achieved with your crops last year."
Mr Parker said if you don't have good management from the start, you would not be able to benefit from that fortunate fall of rain.
Varieties
There were 11 bread wheat and two durum varieties which featured in results last year. Three crops each were of Suntop and Lancer, two of Gregory, Sunmax, Beckom and Flanker, and one each of Condo, Vixen, Kiora, Spitfire and Trojan. Lillaroi and Jandaroi durums.
