Around 400 farmers, agronomists and researchers showed up outside the town of Nullawill in the Wimmera-Mallee for the 2022 Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) Main Field Day for three years on Wednesday.
BCG chief executive Fiona Best said their research site "looked amazing" and thanked the Ferrier family for hosting the main site and Cameron Warner and Lisa Day for hosting sessions at the Warne site, which held sessions on pulse agronomy.
"We have been having a fabulous season... and this year is a significant milestone for our group," she said.
The gathering celebrated 30 years since many local Birchip farmers organised a trip to South Australia for the Hart Field Day to gather knowledge and research from plant nutrition to farming systems.
"I encourage our all our farmers in the room throughout the day to ask as many questions and take home messages from the day," she said.
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University of Melbourne researcher Tim Reeves gave the welcoming address and said it was great to see how far the field day had come after he opened the first BCG Main Field Day decades ago.
"30 years was a very different place... wheat was $180 a ton and now it is $360 a ton," he said.
"Many things have changed over that time... and the nerves were palpable, wondering if people would come and how it would go,"
When he looked back over the decades, Professor Reeves said "a great deal" had been achieved by BCG.
"I remember when that first project came to [the Grains Research & Development Corporation] for approval, and you had a panel with opinions and there were a lot of people asking who BCG were," he said.
"In the end they funded it and the rest is history," he said.
"The contrast is that anything with the BCG brand on it is considered the gold standard now."
Professor Reeves said he was optimistic for the group's next 30 years and that scientists and farmers were working together better than anywhere else, but some concerns remain.
We said it was essential for farmers to adapt businesses to risk.
"We have made huge progress to date, but we do live in a riskier world, and it's got a hell of a lot riskier since that first day, including climate and market risks," he said.
"Business as ususal will not be a viable option for farmers and greater diversification to counter those risks."
