Six years in the making – Brian Pastures Field Day 2024
The Brian Pastures Research Facility was showcased at a recent field day in late May 2024. A result of ongoing collaboration between the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) who manage and AgForce who own the facility, it was the first field day held on site since 2018. With a huge marquee on the lawn and almost perfect weather attendees enjoyed multiple trade displays, presentations and two ‘field tours’ out to the ‘Steak n Wood’ and ‘Pasture Dieback’ trials on site.
With over 200 people in attendance, it was quite a social atmosphere and a great chance for producers to get up to speed with the latest in beef research. There was a full agenda featuring 17 short presentations (plus panel sessions) exploring various topics relevant to a beef business. The day covered everything from advances in AgTech to cattle nutrition, from genomics to sustainability to name a few. With the organisation of the event led by Gabrielle Emmerton (DAF) and Scott Reed (AgForce) it was a large but successful undertaking by the Brian Pastures team.
At the close of the field day whilst taking some photos I questioned some of the producer attendees as to what was their ‘take home point’ from the day? Frustratingly there wasn’t really a common theme from attendees with a large variety of responses. Albeit, satisfyingly this goes to show that there was something for everyone, from appreciating the advances in technology, to interest in silvopastoral research on site or the best ways of dealing with dieback.
My three take home points personally were Tim Emery emphasising about the direct tangible benefits of selecting on EBV’s for herd improvement. Secondly was Josh Peart telling us about how doing an emission baseline is a great start in the emissions space. Most memorable due to the fact that it sounds like a cartoon waiting to be created, was Kylie Hopkins telling us about how legumes are a cows best friend. If you attended, what were yours?
If you would like to know more about Brian Pastures or to keep up to date with what research is being undertaken there check out the new webpage on FutureBeef.
