It is with great sadness that CWFS farewells our colleague, mentor and dear friend, Neil Fettell, who died on Saturday, 16 March after a long illness. Neil was a founding member of CWFS in 1998 and has been a strong advocate for agricultural research in our Central West region for most of his life. His...
The CWFS 2019 Women and Youth in Agriculture Conference – ‘Resilience and Renewal’ was held on Wednesday 27 March 2019 at the Condobolin Agricultural Research Station to a record crowd of 160 people. With perfect autumn weather, the crowd enjoyed a marquee on the lawn of the Ag Station; with a high number of industry...
CWFS Project Manager, Diana Fear, recently attended the National Rural Women’s Coalition Rural Women’s Muster in Canberra (11-14 Feb 2018) on the theme of Strengthening Community through women’s leadership. As one of 14 women chosen from over 100 candidates Australia-wide, Diana participated in leadership development over three intensive days. Participants shared methods, tools and leadership...
Helen McMillan and John Small Central West Farming Systems GRDC Project: CWF00019 Soil acidity and pH management for central west farming districts. Key Words: pH, acidification, lime, legumes Take home messages Soil acidification is a natural process accelerated by high crop yields and fertilizer use. It is an unseen cost of doing business. To maintain a...
It was great to host the Irrigation Research and Extension Committee (IREC) irrigation tour at our Research Innovation Hub (RIH) on 7 February 2018. It was the first stop on a comprehensive tour across NSW and up to Cubbie Station in Queensland. Students from Uruguay and Brazil were on the tour, along with many keen...
2017 Seasonal effects of strategic stubble treatments on Canola in CW NSW Background CWFS conducted trials across the central western district that: investigated the impact that different stubble treatments (burning, cultivation, harrowed or standing stubble) imposed just prior to sowing have on the growth and yield of winter crops, measured using large plotsevaluate any grower...
Wednesday 29 November 2017 heralded the final stubble project plot to be harvested at Northparkes Mine. The other two sites were at Tottenham and Mumbil Creek. These trials have been sown for five years under the GRDC funded initiative “Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble in Central West NSW”. This project has explored the...
On Wednesday, 22 November 2017 a combined Condobolin and Forbes AgMarketing group visited Orange NSW for a site visit in order to better understand product ‘branding’ and how to increase the marketability of our commodities. First on the day’s itinerary was morning tea at Fiona Schofield’s home where she talked to us about the highly...
CWFS AgMarketing meetings 2 & 3 November 2017 Condobolin Another meeting of the Condobolin CWFS AgMarketing Project was held on Thursday, 2 November with rural women coming together to catch up and discuss the upcoming harvest over an informal lunch at the Railway Hotel, Condobolin. This meeting provided a great opportunity for the group to...
On Thursday 2 November 2017 CWFS hosted an event for an announcement by Dr Steve Jefferies, Managing Director of GRDC and Federal MP Mark Coulton, of a $380,000 infrastructure grant for the CWFS Research Innovation Hub (formerly known as LIRAC). The development of the CWFS Research Innovation Hub will provide employment opportunities in regional NSW....
