CANFA Comment

MEDIA RELEASE: 16 February 2012

Several machinery manufacturers and dealers will release updates to their equipment or release new machines at this year’s Conservation Agriculture Field Day at Parkes Racecourse on February 23. However, farmers will need to be thinking ahead if they are to take advantage of new 15 percent conservation tillage tax offsets.

Conservation Agriculture and No-till Farming Association (CANFA) executive officer, Neville Gould believes the Federal Government’s insistence on pushing through the Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011 amendments to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) in its current form will see it underutilised.

“We have attempted to convey the need for some rudimentary and very important changes to this legislation to make it more workable for all involved. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in getting these changes made.

“One of the major changes we were calling for was to make the entitlement retrospective to 1 November, 2011, rather than for equipment that goes into use from 1 July this year. If climate change is as big an issue as the Federal Government makes out, then this program needs to kick in now, not in 16 months time when farmers put in their tax returns.

“We also wanted it to include modifications, such as a new disc undercarriage on an old combine, which was a common modification under past incentive schemes.”

CANFA has written to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, The Hon Greg Combet AM MP, and the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, The Hon John Cobb MP, seeking further discussion with them on the matter.

Organised by CANFA in conjunction with Central West Farming Systems, FarmLink Research and Central West Lachlan Landcare, the annual conservation agriculture field day is renowned for being one of the few farming events where machinery is still actively demonstrated.

A number of machines will be shown for the first time at the field day which is becoming well known as a launching pad for new designs. Not surprisingly, many of the new machines are disc planters.

Mr Gould said one of the earliest disc planter manufacturers in Australia, Daybreak Equipment, from Dalby (Queensland) will be launching a new model. “Many leading farmers in the district are now running their Duodec Disc Opener, being the first planter to have mechanical face seals. This new release will be lighter and better suited to the softer soils in longer term no-tilled paddocks,” said Mr Gould.

Grizzly Engineering, from Swan Hill (Victoria), whilst being well known for their offset discs, will be launching their new single disc planter. They produced the 2009 Machine of the Year with their Wheel Track Renovator.

Last year’s field day winner of the Best Modified Machine award, Michael Carey, from Golden Valley Implements, Coolamon (NSW), will have his Golden Valley disc planter on display, which is now commercially available.

Many of the other exhibitors will have technology which will be of great interest to attendees, be it new sprayer controllers with full mapping capability on the Hardi sprayers, or new products from Ylad Living Soils and Gaia Consultancy.

Mr Gould said while manufacturers continue to develop and improve equipment in line with the needs of farmers, the new tax rebate would be an issue of some discussion at the field day as farmers attempt to work out what it means to their business and conservation farming practices.

“Tyne machines fitted with minimum tillage points, disc openers and disc/tyne and disc/blade hybrid machines will be eligible for the refundable tax offset,” he said. “However, farmers won’t be able to claim them unless they hold what’s called Research Participation Certificate, showing they’ve participated in research into soil carbon sequestration. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has said this will be done by filling out a survey.”

Farmers will be entitled to an refundable tax offset (RTO) of 15 percent of the cost of an eligible asset they held during the income year; they started to use or had installed ready for use during the income year in the course of carrying on a primary production business; and had not previously been used or installed ready for use (that is, the seeder must be new).

The RTO will be available for assets which the taxpayer starts to use or has installed ready for use between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2015 and will be claimable in the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 income years.

The field day is sponsored by the Federal Government Caring For Our Country program, North Parkes Mine, Barrick Gold, Lake Cowal Foundation, Cornish’s, Hutcheon & Pearce, McPherson’s, Lachlan CMA, Central West CMA, Parkes Shire Council, Parkes Jockey Club, Rabobank and The Land newspaper.

The 2012 Conservation Agriculture Field Day gates at Parkes Racecourse open at 8.30am and demonstrations start at 9.30am.

Neville Gould, 0427 452 488 or 02 6845 1044 or email

After a very well attended paddock walk in early December looking at our fleabane trial, with 60 farmers and advisors from all over the State, I put together some of the key lessons I have learnt regarding fleabane in fallows during my time as Hillston DA, incorporating a number of years of trials and commercial experieneces.

Thanks to the agronomists and herbicide companies who have supported this work. I trust you will find the short you tube video informative and perhaps even a little entertaining!

Link to Youtube video

People have been interested in this trial report. Also attached are a few interesting pictures from Chris Minehan (RMSAG Wagga) which highlight the importance of understanding the difference in age and size of fleabane plants this year.

Barry Haskins
Hillston District Agronomist
Primary Industries
Industry & Investment NSW

The passage of the Clean Energy (Carbon Tax) Bill 2011 through both houses of the Australian parliament will undoubtedly go down as a major event in our agricultural history. Whether you agree with the politics of this Bill or not, this decision will impact greatly on how we may operate as farmers and how we are viewed in the eye of the general public. And this is despite the carbon price not including agricultural emissions from livestock or fertiliser use!

The Bill will have implications for farming from 1 July 2012 onwards under the Carbon Farming Initiative which is designed to create economic rewards for farmers and land managers who reduce pollution or store carbon in the landscape.

An ongoing Biodiversity Fund ($946 million over the first six years) will be established for projects to protect biodiverse carbon stores and secure environmental outcomes from carbon farming.

An ongoing Carbon Farming Futures program ($429 million over the first six years) is designed to help farmers and landholders benefit from carbon farming by supporting research and development, measurement approaches and action on the ground to reduce emissions or store carbon, including support for conservation tillage equipment.

CANFA will be keeping an eye on the passage of this Bill and getting a better understanding of it and its impact on you as our members. We would be interested in your thoughts on this matter so please take the opportunity to post your thoughts here in the comments.

- Neville

For commentary on the media commentary of this week's Federal politics, check out Crikey.com's article online.

13 Sept: Sydney Airport
We arrived home to Sydney yesterday (12 Sept) from LA.After 6 weeks and 19 flights we will be home shortly - can't wait, especially since David said that we had 27 mm of rain last week.

After Mazatlan we caught a train and spent the remainder of our trip heading towards Chihuahua through the Copper Canyon - the world's third largest canyon. We had an amazing trip going from lush country to high and barren mountains. There were not many European tourists but we felt 100% safe all the time. We wandered through Indian villages, who live next to caves in which they used. They were selling their handicrafts, training their little toddlers to quietly go up to tourists and show what they had with their innocent faces - it broke many a heart. They seemed to be a quiet people but needed a little money as they didn't grow cash crops, only enough corn, beans and potatoes for their own use. Their crops were very poor and had many weeds not like some commercial corn crops we saw later on that used hybrid varieties.

On our last day we visited a region 110 km out of Chihuahua that was mainly Mennonite (similar to the Hutterites in Canada, but more modern than the Amish in USA). We went through their museum and had lunch at one of their houses in town. About 6000 moved there from Canada in about 1930- 1950 to escape the backlash against Germans, and they now have about 70,000 members. They don't live in closed communities as in Canada but in houses and farms around the town. They try to keep their traditions but are allowed more freedom as some women have careers. They have the world's largest apple orchard in the area, we didn't get to see it but we did manage to visit an apple packing shed. It reminded Ray and I of our orange orchard days! The houses looked very affluent, unlike the unfinished buildings in Mexico. They were very good farmers but suffering a drought (only 6 inches this year compared to 30 inches last year), but their crops looked very good.

Hope that you have enjoyed travelling with us around the world. We certainly saw a lot of farming and different ways of life but we can't wait to get home and get ready for what will hopefully be a good harvest.

Anne Williams

5 Sept: Mazatlan, Mexico
Just an update as we spend the morning in a hotel on the beach at Mazatlan on the Pacific ocean. Since the last email we left Mexico City for a visit to Cimmyt (the second time for Ray and I) but still very informative and interesting.

Fernando was in his usual charismatic form showing us the wheat breeding and conservation agriculture trials. This time though they treated us to a Mexican lunch with the research crew who had been in the fields putting blue tape on individual wheat heads, that would later be harvested by hand in order to keep the seed for further selection. The lunch was salsa and t-bone steak so we were really spoilt!

Heading north of Mexico City with have travelled through beautiful green and some very rich agricultural land - not how I had pictured Mexico at all. We have stopped off at an organic avocado and macadamia farm to see handmade biofertilisers in action. Eugenio Gras recommended this farm to us and he will be in Australia for another course in Mudgee later this month, which we are going to.

On the way, we stopped off at La Cofradia, a tequila farm and factory for lunch. The name tequila is licensed to only approximately three states in Mexico but this one was in the shadows of Tequila Mountain. We learnt how the pineapple of the agave (very similar to our aloe vera) plant is baked, fermented and distilled to form three types of tequila. We tasted all three and thought all were pretty good. After the tour of the factory, museum and shop we had a Mexican lunch outside with a mango margarita!

The hotel we're in is right on the beach but it also has swimming pools with a swim up bar and live music. We only have one more day with the bus and the rest of the trip will be by train so it will be different, but we are certainly seeing some wonderful countryside up the west coast of Mexico.

Anne Williams

1 Sept: New Orleans & Mexico City
Since our last update we spent a couple of days in the old French quarter of New Orleans - managed a swamp tour and dinner on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi, which was quite memorable.

We flew into Mexico a couple of days ago and had lunch at a beautiful old villa.It was very posh - the men had to wear a tie at least! We were treated like royalty but it was a wonderful experience. We didn't realise it at the time but we had 1942 tequila as a pre-lunch drink. It cost as much as the meal! Luckily, it was very nice!

Yesterday had a tour of the Presidential Palace frescos and cathedral (built on top of an Aztec pyramid). A lot of the buildings are leaning because Mexico City is built on top of a lake. It doesn't seem to stop 29 million people living here though. In the afternoon, we toured the ancient pyramids of the sun and the moon,set in beautiful countryside. Ray climbed both and I surprised myself in climbing the moon pyramid (feeling it now though).

Last night we went to the opera building and saw traditional folk dancing, which was very colourful and interesting.

We're off to Cimmyt at Teluco today. Unfortunately we couldn't line up Ken Sayre (the researcher we met in Germany and came to CANFA's conference in 2007), but we spoke to him on the phone yesterday. He is retired now but still coming in to work. We will meet up with David Bonnett, who Ray and I met last week while we were here.

From Teluco we're heading north into the countryside, visiting farms. We've only 10 days left of this wonderful trip, but we're missing everyone.

Anne Williams

27 - 29 August: Chicago, Kentucky, Memphis, New Orleans (USA)

Since Chiciago we have seen farms along the way mostly growing corn and soybeans with some wheat as we move further down. All we saw were working closely with university extension officers to try to extend their yields. In that race they may have lost sight of optiminising gross margins due to excessive inputs (seed and high land costs). Land prices have sky-rocketed with higher commodity prices.

We were enlighted by Dr Rattan Lal who was head researcher into carbon sequestration and a government advisor. He said that he was keen to come to our place to see large areas of chickpeas growing because back in India, where he grew up, the largest paddock was 0.5 ha.

We also went to a farm promoting cover crops after grain crops where we met Dr Rafiq Islam, who gave us a better insight into biological farming nitrogen utilisation. We are keen to keep in contact with this researcher as he was willing to discuss our sap tests results.

Progressing further down to Kentucky, the soils are very much more challenging with impervious clay layers only 12 inches down. They are trying to overcome it with rye grass as a cover crop as the roots may break through this layer.

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Well here we are in New Orleans! After leaving Kentucky we travelled down to Nashville and then on to Memphis. In Nashville we toured the music museum which was very good and that night went to the Grand Old Ophry. This was live country music going out over radio (and has been since 1925). It was a great night and found a new love in the music.

In Memphis we had a tour of Gracelands, through the house and gardens - certainly worth a visit. We stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel which was decked out in 1950/60 decore and watched The King live play in a few concerts in the dining room.

The interstate highways are an extremely efficient transport system, all dual carriage ways making travelling very easy.

Having a great time but will be heading back off to Mexico again after tomorrow for a couple of weeks, which should be great.

Anne Williams

24 Aug: Columbus via Chicago, USA
Ray and I left Cimmyt and the group earlier in a chaufer driven car to arrive at Mexico Airport to find that they upgraded us to business class (they said that they needed to redistribute the weight in the plane? Ask no questions - just accept it all. As a consequence we had a great flight to Chicago. We were up at 3.10 am though to catch up with John Lawrie's group.

We had a long way to come here to Columbus but managed to fit in a couple of farm visits on the way. John and the crew tried to make us envious of the week we missed with them. The visit to Dwyne Beck in south Dakota and to Edwin Blosser (compost making) were apparently the two outstanding visits.

Tonight we are off to dinner at the Ihio University with Dr Randal Reeder (who spent four months with Neville Gould at Trangie some years ago) and Professor Rattan Lal (a soil carbon specialist), and a few others who we are yet to meet. We are looking forward to it.

Anne Williams

19 Aug: Dallas, Texas
After another couple of flights, here we are in Dallas ready to leave tomorrow for Mexico. We're having a great time!

In St Louis we saw Monsanto's headquarters - 2,500 employees and 5,000 all up in St Louis.They spend more on ag research than the USDA does.

We went to Gavilon Grain Elevators, after which a couple of Texans lead us on a visit to their farms - pretty impressive. They are having more than a month of temps above 100F and in the midst of a serious drought which they are starting to compare to the 1930's Dust Bowl, but this time without the dust storms. Despite the dry they are still harvesting some crops such as sunflowers and cotton.

We had lunch at a real Texan bar at the Fort Worth Stock Yards - they had saddles as bar stools!

A free day tomorrow before another flight to Mexico which we are all greatly looking forward to.

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22 Aug: Cimmyt, Mexico
Hi there from Mexico City, our last visit on the GRDC’s The way we were trip.

Yesterday we went to Cimmyt and met the farm manager Fernando Delgardo (pictured here in wheat trials at Cimmyt) who ran an excellent experimental station with a lot of emphasis on breeding wheat and corn for international partners, but always kept in mind his obligation to improve the local farming systems that are around 1 acre per farmer (with livestock included). The chief breeder, Dr Ravi Singh from Sydney Uni, gave us an excellent insight into how plant breeding for wheat works and their ambition to be ahead of the next global catastrophe in wheat diseases. He was able to quote wheat breeds, like Cook and Hartog, that we direct descendants of Mexican Cimmyt breeding programs.

Australian, Dr David Bonnett showed us his trials pre-breeding to bring back the genetics of ancient grasses and durum wheats to bring more diversity into the genome pool, bringing hybrid vigour back into the breeding program so that they may be selected to put into the main line of breeding. We are privledged to met such clever people as we have travelled.

We are visiting the Australian Ambassador this afternoon and back to the headquarters of Cimmyt tomorrow before we fly back to Chicago to catch up with John Lawrie's tour of USA and Mexico. It will be great to catch up with them.

Anne Williams

16 Aug: St Louis
It seems weeks since the last update as we have seen so much. Since then we have seen a Hutterite community, a farm visit along with some ag exchange students (some Aussies), then Pioneer in Des Moine and now we're here in St Louis to visit Monsanto - lots of flights and late nights, but all very exciting.

The visit to Lionel and Melody Ector's farm out of Saskatoon may have been the highlight for me. They grow speciality crops such as lentils and corianda which they pack themselves from 0.5 kg to 1 tonne bags for export. They also grow wheat, chickpeas (but not since 1998 due to disease), canola, field peas and mustards. Wheat is their less profitable crop. Like us, they have variable weather but have developed a well-run and professional farm and seed business - well worth a visit.

Anne Williams