New ideas and shared findings on everything from creating better topsoil to lucerne suitability, feed budgeting for stock and forage trials comparing hundreds of varieties created endless agricultural possibilities at a spring field day recently.
Aside from offering social interaction and communication, the Gippsland Agricultural Group (GAgG) spring field day meant the 117 attendees could choose a subject and increase their knowledge base.
GAgG chief executive officer Trevor Caithness was happy with the roll up, saying despite cold weather, low commodity prices and high interest rates, producers were able to recognise there were things in farming they could control.
"Our attendees had the choice of 11 presentations," Trevor said.
"It was most encouraging to observe our members gleaning information from trials to take home and try out in their own business.
"The degree of upskilling that's taking place within our region is excellent.
"Thursday was our fourth annual spring field day and was the largest turnout we've had."
He said the lucerne demonstration created a lot of chatter, with one farmer saying he had grown lucerne for 40 years and had learnt more than he'd ever known.
Peak Pasture and Livestock agronomist Nicole Frost has been engaged by GAgG as a drought adoption officer via funding from Food and Fibre Gippsland, and has been working with producers on the tangible benefits of dryland lucerne as part of a drought-readiness strategy.
Lucerne is a deep-rooted plant able to access deeper subsurface moisture during dry times.
During the paddock session Nicole explained to her group lucerne was a poor competitor as a young plant.
"As a seedling it's pretty pathetic, we need to eliminate competition as much as we can, a pre-emergent spray is always a good idea," Nicole said.
"Don't overwork your soil, it prefers clods to powder-like soil and don't go overboard with nitrogen.
"Also, seed depth is very important, only sow at 1-1.5cm."
Fellow drought adoption officer, GAgG's Rick Blackshaw, ran the Growing More Topsoil and Soil Amelioration sessions in another demonstration paddock.
Rick is leading a five-year project jointly funded by Meat and Livestock Australia to look at the practice of soil amelioration in its capacity to increase water and nutrient holding capacity and overall soil health.
The plot at the Gippsland Research Farm is part of a network of five producer demonstration sites across the region with farms in Flynn, Yarram, Bengworden, and Dennison all trialling the practice at a commercial level.
Soil experts, Peter Norwood, of Full Circle Nutrition, and Federation University soil scientist, Bill Grant, were on hand at the sessions to add technical information, with Bill acknowledging the demonstration was utilising "very challenging soils".
"Rather than buy another paddock at a high price per acre," Rick said to the group.
"What would it look like if we invest $1000 an acre on land we already have?
"And how long does the benefit last?
"We need to find a way for our soils to be more robust."
In other soil news, Southern Farming Systems' (SFS) Nat Jenkins was extremely excited to showcase a new piece of equipment on the day, a trailer mounted soil coring unit, which takes one-metre-deep cores as well as 10 to 40cm surface sampling.
The unit will be used across 60 farms as part of the Digging Deeper project, which aims to help farmers better understand what's beneath their feet.
"The machine was generously funded by the State of Victoria through Emergency Recovery Victoria's Community Facilities grant program in response to the bushfires which impacted Victorian communities in East Gippsland," Nat said.
"It's going to make a big contribution to soil work in our region."