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Export achievements recognised
Pacific Seeds Regional Director, Howard Morris said this is the second time in three years the company has won the Southern Queensland agribusiness award, and receiving the runners up award in the state section is recognition of the company’s efforts over the past 25 years to build the international side of the business. “We export to a wide range of countries including the Middle East, Asia and South America,” he said. Complimenting the company’s 43 year history as a market leader in the Australian broadacre seed industry, Pacific Seeds provides a diverse range of products to both domestic and international customers. “Pacific Seeds specialises in the development and marketing of seeds including tropical baby and sweet corn, sunflower, canola, grain sorghum, forage sorghum as well as feed and gritting corns,” Mr Morris said. The export division of the company now conducts $20 million of export activity and has been the catalyst to development of stand alone operations in Thailand, India and Canada. (From left) International Sales Co-ordination Manager, Helen Bates, stands with the framed export award along with Regional Sales Manager – East Asia, David Callachor, he Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, he Mayor of Toowoomba, Cr. Dianne Thorley, Mrs Gaye Raabe, Mrs Susan Swann, International Shipping Manager, Richard Raabe, Regional Sales Manager – Middle East & West Asia, Bill Swann, Quality Control Manager, Matthew Needham, Mrs Tanya Needham. |
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New wheat varieties launched at field walk
Pacific Seeds’ territory manager for the area, Rob Johnston said that the first opportunity for many agronomists and farmers in the area to see the varieties in the field was early last month at Jeff Nixon’s Croppa Creek Property 'Merwood'. |
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| October | ||||||
Variety of choice performs in dry conditions
“This year we grew around 60 hectares of MR-Pacer, and due to where the rain fell and other factors the Pacer ended going in on some of our paddocks with less than desirable moisture,” Annie said. “We don’t mind planting Pacer on this ground, because we know it will perform in both good and bad conditions.” In dryer years, Annie said the Pacer still went 4.95t/ha and in good years went 7.43t/ha. “One of the key components that makes it one of our major planting varieties is the large seed size,” she said. “In dry years there are far less screenings with the Pacer.” Always planting Elite® seed, the Pfeffers said that the benefits of using treated seed are particularly apparent when weather conditions mean the seed sits in the ground longer than expected. “We achieved a really good strike and plant population even though the initial seeding conditions were marginal in moisture,” she said. The Pfeffers choose to rotate their summer crops to both spread the risk and also from a soil conditioning and disease and weed management perspective. “Both sunnies and corn are good for the soil, with the sunnies helping to open it up and the corn a bit softer on the soil than sorghum,” Annie said. Pacer fits well into the Pfeffer cropping program, and is a variety of choice for them because of its ability to produce in dry seasons. “In the tough years, the Pacer just hangs in and hangs in there,” she said. Caption: Gavin and Annie Pfeffer in their crop of MR-Pacer.
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Top yields from a 'safe' crop
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| September | ||||||
Color TV reward for grower information
September 2005 : When Jim Black of Brookstead updated his grower information at the Pacific Seeds' display tent at AgShow earlier this month, little did he realise that he would receive a free color television for his troubles. Jim (pictured) was presented with the small TV by local territory manager, Bill Smith, after his name was the first drawn from the barrel. All those who attended the Pacific Seeds display were encouraged to enter or update their postal address or email address and then enter the information sheet into the draw. Not only has Jim, and his wife Val, scored a color telly for his efforts but he as also ensured that he will receive up to date information from Pacific Seeds on up coming field days, trial site visits, new products and the results of local area trials. Happy viewing Jim and Val! |
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Maxi yields on early plant
September 2005:Early planted sorghum in north west NSW got the best season over the 2004/05 summer, and this was proven by Yallaroi grower, Sean Coleman. Mr Coleman who farms in partnership with his father Paddy at 'Nobby Park', won the Warialda Dryland Grain Sorghum competition with a crop of MR-Maxi planted in the third week of September. Overall the crop is expected to average 8.75mt/ha, with the 50ha which was yield tested for the competition yielding 9.5t/ha. |
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| August | ||||||
How early can you plant grain sorghum? August 2005: With the rain that many areas were lucky to pick up through winter, we have a lot of areas with good prospects for sorghum. Growers are getting anxious to plant in these areas and while some do not need any more rain, others still require 10 to 30mm. When planting in early spring, a final cold snap for the year can often occur, particularly if planting rain falls. This could seriously affect the germination and establishment rates of the grain sorghum seedlings. |
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Large volumes of feed from small area
August 2005: An old lucerne stand of two separate 8ha paddocks took on a new lease of life when Mudgee farm manager Dallas Lawry planted forage sorghum variety Superdan on the property 'Riverview'. Dallas sowed the crop using an International combine. The paddocks had been treated preplant with 125kg/ha of Granulock 12 using a presowing RoundUp application to clean up any weed problem. The Superdan was grown specifically as a hay stand to be used as weaner dry feed and as a drought reserve. |
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Good silage like money in the bank August 2005: Dairyfarmer Simon Hall planted Pacific BMR as a silage and grazing crop on his property north of Kerang, in Victoria's North West. This is the second crop of Pacific BMR Simon has planted as he has found it a cost effective silage reserve which fills the winter feed gap. “It’s like having money in the bank” was the best way Simon could describe his Pacific BMR crops. |
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| July | ||||||
Corn comes through in tough season
July 2005 : The Ferguson family at Broxbourne near Bowenville have been growing Hycorn 424 for several seasons and swear by the variety due to its resilience in seasons that continually produce tough conditions. They refer to it as 'our desert corn'. This season their crop of Hycorn 424 out performed other varieties, even in the heavy black soil on their Darling Downs farm. |
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| June | ||||||
Jacket giveaway scores a winner
June 2005 : The lucky winner of the Pacific Seeds Elders Farmfest draw, 2005 was Queensland Farmer's Warehouse employee, Tom Beesley. Tom won a Driza-Bone Jacket by simply updating his details on the Pacific Seeds' database when he filled out a form at the annual field days. Tom also has a property at Pittsworth which keeps him in tune with what is going on in the agricultural scene in his area. Congratulations Tom!
Caption: Pacific Seeds Northern and Southern Darling Downs and Lockyer Valley Territory Manager, Bill Smith, congratulates Ton Beesley on winning a Driza-Bone jacket in a draw held at the recent Elders Farmfest field days. |
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| May | ||||||
Premer Shield win celebrates 40 years of sorghum growing
Winning the Premer Shield was a fitting way for the Barwicks to mark nearly 40 years of growing grain sorghum on the Liverpool Plains. Over this time the Barwicks have been at the forefront of trialling new varieties and new soil management practices. They have been planting Buster, now their main variety, since its release in 1991. “Initially we grew it on a trial basis,” Neil Barwick said. “It didn’t take us too long to realise it was the most outstanding variety at the time, and continues to be one of the best.” |
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Private breeding program delivers
Pacific Seeds sorghum breeder Neil Muller, was a key figure responsible for breeding this benchmark sorghum. It has been the yardstick for other sorghum varieties for 15 years. “Breeding a grain sorghum that incorporates stress tolerance, wide adaptation and above all the ability to produce good yields, both top end and under less favorable conditions, is a time consuming process” Mr Muller said. The development of new hybrid combinations is only part of the process involved in the discovery of well adapted sorghum varieties. Yield testing to ensure the new hybrids perform at the highest level is an absolute necessity prior to commercially releasing them. Pacific Seeds' rigorous commitment to this part of the development procedure has been instrumental in allowing the release of elite hybrids such as MR-Buster, MR43 and MR-Maxi. “We don’t fast-track our experimental hybrids into the market place. We must be absolutely sure that they perform at a high level across a range of seasons and environmental conditions,” Mr Muller said. |
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| January | ||||||
Trying something new pays off for hay grower
Planting his feed oats in 15 acre plots in order to monitor how much feed was harvested from each paddock, Mr Wright said 2004 was the first time he had planted Taipan oats, planting 60 acres of a total oats crop of 180 acres to the variety. "The Taipan yielded 4.8 tonnes per acre of hay for baling, which is very good for an oats crop" he said. |
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Kumbia farmer honoured
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Corn crop valuable management tool
In the 2003/04 season over 1500ha of corn was planted, compared to 8500ha of cotton. While good prices for the corn crops made growing maize an economically viable option, many growers are convinced that the benefits of the crop extend beyond yield and dollar terms. |
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Pacific Seeds' territory manager Maree Crawford said that Hycorn 675 has taken the industry to another level due to its ability to produce high yields in adverse conditions and this was reflected in the huge demand for the variety by experienced corn growers right across corn growing regions of Australia in late 2004 “There were yield differences of up to 1t/ha from Hycorn 675 over other varieties in the Burnett last season, but it is not just about yield this variety has other unique attributes that assist it to perform in tough environments where others just don’t handle it ” she said. |
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Trial results point to best crop outcomes
One such family who does this are Bill and Pam Stallman at Condamine who are hosting a trial for the second year running. |
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November 2005: Following a win in the agribusiness section of the Southern Queensland Export Awards, Toowoomba based seed company Pacific Seeds has scooped the runners up award in the state agribusiness section of the Premier’s Export Awards.
November 2005: In the past few weeks Pacific Seeds has launched its three new wheat varieties into the North West NSW market place with a series of field walks among the trial crops growing in the area.
October 2005: Growing MR-Pacer since its release five years ago, Gavin and Annie Pfeffer of 'Willow Glen', Pittsworth, like to spread their risk and rotation of crops on the property by planting a variety of grain sorghum varieties and other summer crops, including sunflowers and corn.
October 2005: Central Queensland grower, Roland Hornick (pictured right) chooses to plant feed corn as his major summer crop on his irrigated blocks.
May 2005 : A 9.9 tonnes per hectare plot of MR-Buster, planted by Neil and Geoff Barwick, has been declared the winner of the 2005 Premer Shield.
May 2005 : One of the biggest breakthroughs in grain sorghum breeding was made with the release of MR-Buster by Pacific Seeds.
January 2005 : Inglewood hay grower, Mark Wright trialled something new among his oats varieties last season, and is pleased with the results.
January 2005 :While his city cousins are just getting up, Kumbia farmer Brett Fresser is probably returning to the house for his breakfast having already been on the job for a few hours. This drive is a reflection on why Brett was honored for his innovative approach to farm management at the end of last year as the 2004 recipient of the Graham Peterson Memorial Award.
crop" he said. 
New corn hybrid lifts production for Burnett farmers