GROWERS should talk to seed and chemical suppliers about new varieties and products coming for next season before making any decisions on what they plant or spray.
That was the clear message to more than 130 farmers and agronomists from seed and chemical company representatives who attended last week's annual Mingenew-Irwin Group (MIG) Spring Field Day on three neighbouring properties at Yandanooka, south of Mingenew.
It was backed up by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) researchers who recommended growers should watch out for the latest National Variety Trial (NVT) results after harvest this year to help inform their decisions for next season.
Some of the varieties and products - like Genesis 836, a new variety chickpea that grows taller than the popular but sometimes hard to harvest Striker variety as a break crop, are expected to be available shortly.
Others like G-group broadleaf post-sowing pre-emergent herbicide Reflex will be licensed much closer to the start of the next season.
But most producers, seed or chemical, will have something new to offer, growers were told at the field day sites.
"Growers are going to be spoilt for choice next season with the range of new products coming through and importantly, they all have new chemistry," said veteran crop protection specialist and WA market development manager for Adama Australia, Bevan Addison.
"It's a great time to be a grower, I've never seen so much new product coming through the pipeline," he said.
With wheat, canola and pulse crops looking magnificent in MIG's area at the moment, the only crop that did not attract attention at the field day was barley.
Research agronomist and Living Farm managing director Richard Devlin, who is running wheat and barley NVTs on Gary and Vicki Chivers' Yandanooka farm that were inspected as part of the day, said he asked a group of growers if they wanted information about the barley trial.
"They just laughed at me," Mr Devlin said.
Pulse NVTs were inspected on Murray and Annette and Ian and Jill Thomas's farm and canola and lupin inspections and information sessions were on Nic and Bec Duane's farm.
Some of trials involved research on the uptake of nitrogen by crops and the message from researchers was go early and at higher recommended rates with nitrogen because benefits were sometimes unseen underground in root development and not necessarily in obvious green growth.
The Duanes also hosted lunchtime sessions by McIntosh & Son on the new heavy duty Gessner ripper and by AFGRI of the new John Deere C650 air cart with order deliveries expected in December.
Sessions on farm management and business diversity and a technology and communications update were also held in the Duane's shed before the GrainCorp sundowner wound up the day.
MIG chairman Daniel Michael and chief executive officer Kathryn Fleay were very pleased with the turn out.
"We're extremely happy today with the turnout and especially as we have a lot of growers here," Mr Michael said.
"Obviously in the early stages of COVID we were very unsure what the direction was and where we were heading at that stage.
"But I think with a bit of an earlier break this year, we've actually have had a few field walks and they have been extremely well attended all year.
"I think this is probably the fifth event we've (MIG) held and we've been getting really good numbers, where last year we really struggled under the shortened season.
"Hopefully that's a good sign for the future.
"The Mingenew-Irwin Group is going through a bit of a transitional stage with some younger members taking on some higher roles on the board and we are seeing more younger people coming through our field walks.
"We've had a fantastic August, which has really changed the season around and we just hope the next couple of weeks are kind to us," Mr Michael said.
Ms Fleay said she believed the Spring Field Day attendance was "probably a few more than we would normally get".
