August 2011

CRC Funding

FFI CRC receives $34m income from the Australian Government's CRC Program, $20m from industry and R&D partners and an additional $12m has been granted to CRC projects and technologies – $66m total over seven years. This is matched by in-kind staff and other resources from our R&D partners.

So it was of concern to the FFI CRC Chair Andrew Inglis, the incoming CEO Peter Zurzolo and myself to learn, while attending a CRC Association meeting in Canberra last week, that the CRC Program’s funding cuts will impact so heavily that agriculture sector CRCs may be more than halved in the next three years... Read more...

Kevin Goss CEO

INFFER is going places in Canada

INFFER – the Investment Framework for Environmental Resources – is going places in Canada. Future Farm Industries CRC researchers Anna Roberts (pictured) and David Pannell recently travelled to Canada. Anna said a group, Land Stewardship, and the Alberta government, were keen to pursue using INFFER, and at least one of Manitoba’s CMA-equivalents was using INFFER to help make decisions about water-related projects.

Monitoring mallees

Sophisticated monitoring equipment set up in a mallee belts in Narrogin, Western Australia will help shed light on just what happens to water in the landscape when mallee belts are added to the picture. Dr Daniel Mendham (CSIRO) who, With Dr Richard Bennett (CSIRO) (pictured), leads the joint Future Farm Industries CRC-Curtin Universtity said they had been collecting data since February.

Perennial wheat success goes international

Australia’s success in cultivating perennial wheat was given an international hearing in July, with results from recent FFI CRC-sponsored research presented in the USA. In the Australian trials, perennial wheat lines successfully yielded grain for three consecutive years - a feat not managed anywhere else.

EverGraze on WA's south coast

The value of kikuyu in grazing systems was under the spotlight during a recent EverGraze foray to the South Coast region of Western Australia. EverGraze Project Leader Kate Sargeant said Morgan Sounness’s work with kikuyu has enabled him to reclaim areas that were previously cropped but were unproductive, unreliable and suffering wind erosion.

Learning about saltland

Participants at a recent EverTrain saltland workshop in Cranbrook, Western Australia responded enthusiastically to the format of the workshop and the material presented.

The workshop was run by the Gillamii Centre in conjunction with FFI CRC and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA, with support from the Saltland Pastures Association, Caring for Our Country and the Saltland Knowledge Exchange/Saltland Genie. It is the third such event run by Gillamii and was based on the EverTrain Productive Saltland Pastures course.

Post graduate student activities

Following the decision to cancel this year's post graduate professional development conference, plans are underway to hold two 'mini-conferences' in 2012, each coinciding with FFI CRC Board Meetings and each providing an opportunity for students to present updates on their research progress while meeting with other students and having access to professional development training.

The first event will be for students based in the east and will be held at The University of Western Australia, Perth in the week beginning 13 February 2012.

The second event, for students in the west, will be held at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW in the week beginning 28 May 2012.

Further details of these events will be provided in the next month and travel support provided to students as needed.

In the meantime, Education Manager Dr John Harper and Agribusiness Director Dr Scott Glyde will be holding meetings with all students over the next few months to detail access to new training and other professional development opportunities within FFI CRC.

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