Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) northern regional panel chairman James Clark was in Wagga this week for the GRDC Update.

He said science and information were the keys for producers and boosting yield potential and effective input use remained big issues.

“The environmental potential of our crops is higher than what we are achieving,” he said.

This meant there was significant opportunities for growers to use new information to help boost profits.

Mr Clark said the yield gap may be due to the attitude towards risk. 

“This is why we have these days, there is a need to ensure that we have as many growers as possible achieving best practice,” he said. 

Mr Clark said the Wagga event – which attracted more than 240 people – provided plenty of technical information from some of the leading authorities.

He said the science was targeted to the cropping zones and offered plenty of diversity.

“We try and get a local committee to provide some input about what they think the issues are and what the constraints on production are,” he said.

“Nutrition is a major issue, and the timing of when you put nutrition on … weeds and herbicide resistance are perennial topics too,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Clark said Wagga and southern NSW was a leader in agricultural research.

He said it was also home to productive and successful growers.

“For me I am looking forward to meeting researchers and having interaction with the leading growers and agronomists in this area,” he said.

The two-day GRDC Update carried the theme Informed decisions – driving change.

Topics ranged from seeding, varieties, disease, imagery, controlled traffic farming, profitability and nutrition.

GRDC Wagga update chairman Lachlan Caldwell said the focus was aimed at promotion discussion and research on an umber of production drivers within the farming business.