IT'S been 20 years since Southern Farming Systems (SFS) was first established, but the farmer-driven research extension group is as relevant now as it was back then.
The group celebrated its anniversary at Marcus Oldham College at Geelong on Friday night, with 110 current members and past affiliates helping to mark the occasion.
Among those reminiscing on the night was Bruce Wilson, who was the first chair of the group. He led the organisation from 1995 to 2000.
The Murdeduke Angus principal was one of the original founding members, along with a handful of Winchelsea farmers - Rowan Peel, David Langley, Andrew Morrison, Bruce Wightman and Chris Bluett.
Mr Wilson said SFS emerged because those farmers saw the need for cropping research to be conducted in high rainfall zones (HRZs).
"If you'd told me we would still be going strong in 20 years' time, I wouldn't have believed it," he said.
"But once that momentum got going nothing could stop the group, because the need for that sort of research was so great."
He said the GRDC had only been around for five or six years then, and they were happy to fund SFS projects in those regions.
"We were paying a levy, and were interested in getting it spent in our area," he said.
The group's earliest research helped to open up the heavy clay soils of the Western District to cropping; an area that Mr Wilson said was principally home to livestock enterprises.
"It helped so many farmers to diversify," he added.
"Southern Farming Systems was chosen as a name to firmly indicate that as farm operators we were not singular in our interests. We weren't just croppers, woolgrowers, pig farmers or beef producers, we were operating multiple enterprise operations, quite complex many of them and we required our research to reflect this strongly."
For Mr Wilson, the research enabled him to be more flexible, growing crops across a bigger area for on-farm fodder and for market.
From a group of six growers around Winchelsea in 1995, SFS now has around 550 members in branches across the high rainfall zones of south-west Victoria (Hamilton, Streatham and Inverleigh), Gippsland (Bairnsdale) and Tasmania (Cressy).
The group's most influential research was developing, the now common practice of raised bed cropping.
SFS Hamilton branch director and south-west mixed farmer Rob Gardner said raised beds changed the face of cropping in the HRZ.
"Without drainage especially in the south-west, we couldn't produce crops, they would be wiped out from water logging," he said.
And while raised beds remained a powerful tool for farmers in high rainfall zones, SFS chief executive Jon Midwood told the crowd at Friday's celebrations the group's research focus was constantly evolving. Since he's been in the top role, climate variability had driven many of the SFS projects.
"From 2004 to 2010, we had six years of drought, and SFS was really focused on moisture retention, inter-row sowing, and getting through dry times," he said.
Climate variability was still very much on the group's radar.
"A lot of people tend to get caught up in doom and gloom when climate is mentioned, but I think if we can learn to manage it properly, there's a big opportunity ahead for us," Mr Midwood said.
"In the good years, we need to be assessing whether we've gone hard enough, and in the bad years we need to how to learn how to wind back to make the best return," he said.
The use of on-farm technology was also in SFS' sights.
"We are going to look at how we integrate technology, robotics and sensors," Mr Wilson said, adding that the use of drones could help farmers to make more strategic agronomy decisions.
Looking ahead, attracting and retaining youth would be another big focus.
"Even though universities are saying that course numbers are increasing, many of those people don't come back to the farm…they go into corporate agriculture," he said.
"We really want to provide a pathway for young people to enter research and agronomy."
