Organisers were pleased with the turn-out at Farm Trade Australia's inaugural agribusiness forum, held at the Horsham Golf Club this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Farm Trade Australia Director David Matthews said the forum was a fantastic opportunity for farmers and industry to get together in lieu of the cancelled Wimmera Machinery Field Days.
"We were really pleased with today. It was really our first chance in a long time to have a face-to-face meeting with farmers to talk more about Trade Australia and what we are seeking to build with that," he said.
"Also just to demonstrate some of the projects we are working on."
The day featured several presentations from farmers, including Rural Bank's Andrew Smith, Malteurop's Elle Hentshcke and Australian Grain Technologies Tristan Coram.
RELATED NEWS - Bright days ahead for Wimmera Field days in 2022
Topics ranged from new high fibre wheat and malting barley varieties and agricultural data collection to the effects of climate change and rising land values.
Meteorologist and Seven News weather presenter Jane Bunn also made an appearance to promote her new weather app Jane's Weather and provide the forum with a seasonal outlook.
Mr Matthews said he was happy with the engagement the presentations received.
"I think farmers were particularly interested in the malt barley supply project into Malteurop and the high fibre wheat project into Japanese flour mills," he said.
"I think that is a really interesting technology where customers are not just seeking ordinary wheat for milling or noodle making, but they are seeking food characteristics so in this case a high fibre function in the wheat.
"That starts to change the way we start thinking about marketing wheat from a commodity basis to something targeted to consumer needs.
"There was a whole lot of things were farmers have the knowledge but don't quite yet have the platform to utilise that in a collective way."
OTHER NEWS:
Did you know you can receive updates straight to your inbox? To make sure you're up-to-date with news from across the region, sign up below.