A group of 12 Growers from the Monto district climbed aboard the bus for a couple of intense days of learning.
The group departed for Dalby on Tuesday afternoon and had an early start on Wednesday morning. First up, a scenic drive from Dalby to Allora via Cecil Plains with the final destination being David Peter’s farm near Allora. David was the awarded the Grain Grower of the Year award from GRDC in 2018 and is well known for growing high yielding dryland crops. While at David’s the group got to inspect his sorghum and corn crops up close and David happily answered many questions. The group spent time inspecting David’s precision planter and discussing his zero till methods.
David had organised a meeting of the Killarney/Allora Top Crop Growers Group to coincide with our visit. This presented a great networking opportunity and many a farming conversation occurred over a lovely morning tea. There was a great rapport formed between the Top Crop and Monto Growers Groups.
Wednesday afternoon involved a group exercise “Better Results Together”. Our lovely facilitator, Heather Ellis, took the group through a Colour Spectrum personality exercise that allowed everyone to understand their own personality and the personalities of those around them. It was a great professional development exercise to promote group cohesion and to facilitate peer to peer learning into the future.
After some further socialising on Wednesday night with Top Crop Group members, the bus departed Clifton for the PB Agrifoods facility in Toowoomba. PB Agrifoods is a specialist trader in pulses, grains and planting seeds to which some of our local growers have marketed their product previously.
It was a great opportunity for Growers to witness what happens to their produce when it leaves the farm as well as discussing current market demands for individual varieties. The visit included a tour of the “gluten” facilities in Toowoomba and the “gluten free” facilities at Maralong as well as inspecting the company’s own soybean trials.
Our final stop on the tour was the Rasmussen Bros Engineering workshop in Dalby. After demonstrating the latest technology in precision planting and spraying, Marshall and Darren Rasmussen fielded a barrage of questions from the growers around how the technology can be applied in the paddock. For many, this was the highlight of the trip – getting to see the equipment first hand and ask questions relevant to each grower’s own operation.
The feedback at the end of the tour was positive with several attendees suggesting it was our best bus trip yet!