THE Liebe Group launched a new workshop series AgChats on earlier this month, designed to provide interactive learning opportunities on agronomic and business management topics for local farm businesses.
GrainGrowers is supporting the rollout of AgChats.
“GrainGrowers is always looking at ways to bring growers together to discuss progressive farming applications,” said western regional co-ordinator Alan Meldrum.
“I know the AgChats will bring real value to growers.”
The inaugural AgChats session focused on going back to basics with tank mixing and the chemistry behind the chemicals with senior chemists Andrew Huxham, Nufarm Australia and Brad Smith, CSBP.
Thirteen Liebe Group members shared their personal experiences with on-farm chemicals before practical, hands-on learning on how and why some mixes can go wrong.
Daniel Birch, Catalina Farms, Coorow, said that he found the session to be very informative and discovered just how critical tank mixing order, product addition timing and water quality are for optimum results.
“The AgChats session highlighted the benefit of conducting jar tests if you are unsure of mixing order or compatibility,” Mr Birch said.
Mr Smith demonstrated the importance of water, good agitation and mixing order when adding chemicals and micronutrients with Flexi-N or other UAN products in a hands-on demonstration in the Liebe Group shed.
Mr Huxham further supported this demonstration by showing participants the physical consequences of incorrect mixing order and how chemical formulations vary considerably despite an active ingredient being identical.
Some of the take-home messages for those who attended were to ensure adequate volumes of water are being used before adding the chemical component of a tank mix, having good quality water, mixing chemicals in the correct order and having patience and good agitation when mixing to ensure adequate dispersion of chemical in solution.
The AgChat series will be continuing throughout 2019, with the next session in March focusing on human resources and Single Touch Payroll for farming businesses.
The Liebe Group is looking forward to continuing to offer local grower members timely and relevant information that can improve their business performance.
