RIDE AND DRIVE FIELD DAY BEERWAH 23/10/18

Turf Queensland attended an industry field day on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 with considerable machinery and processes spoken about and displayed. The event was targeting all agricultural including the turf, sports, golf and nursery industries.

A number of areas were discussed on the day mainly:

• Precision Agriculture Danny Weir, who was demonstrating his drone for photographic benefit. He advised that in his opinion the aerial drone EN 38 and NDVI displays were costly and depending on the cloud cover of the day could lose its 100% efficiency. He said he was working with Airborne Technologies out of Toowoomba and most of the results that have been forthcoming were excellent for the producer to identify areas requiring improvement or investigation but it still had to be ground proofed by producer. He suggested it was a bit like a needle in a haystack and at least this would identify the needle that needed then to be investigated further by the grower. It saved a considerable amount of time and effort and in most instances was well received.
• Elders promoted a new EDN product for soil treatment that in their opinion was an ozone-depleting answer to today’s fumigation challenges and an alternative to methyl bromide. They promoted the fact that the product limits the impact of pests and diseases in agriculture and is basically a disinfectant for the soils controlling insects, diseases, nematodes, weeds and other parasites before planting. They stated that the product has a shorter fumigation period with improved penetration characteristics enabling faster plant back.