Nuffield conferences

The Nuffield Australia Board has been considering the optimum format for our ‘National Conference’ in recent years. After evaluating various arrangements it was decided to streamline the old format, merging successful elements and rebranding the overall event under the banner of Innovative Farming Australia (IFA) and incorporating the Spring and Autumn tours.

This year's Autumn tour occurred between February 28 and March 2. Information about it and previous year's IFA conferences can be found via this link.

2008 Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC)

Innovative young farmers from around the world gathered in Melbourne in February 2008 to discuss the capacity of agriculture to meet the global demand for food over the next 10 to 20 years.

Starting in Melbourne on Sunday February 24, the CSC included three days of visits to Victorian farming operations in the Mornington Peninsula, South Gippsland, central Victoria and the Goulburn Valley.

“Australia has some great initiatives within the Nuffield network, and as a farming destination we are doing a lot of innovative things; we had a lot to offer the visiting scholars,” Mr Jim Geltch (Nuffield Australia CEO) said. “We also secured major sponsorship for the conference from Bayer CropScience, a company that leads international agriculture in research and development.

The Contemporary Scholars Conference then joined the annual Nuffield Australia Autumn Tour and Innovative Farming Australia Conference, in Echuca on Friday February 29, which included returning Australian scholars providing an overview of their travels and research.

The conference gave participants an overview of global agriculture and trade issues, with presentations from successful agricultural business owners and managers.

A copy of the CSC itinerary can be downloaded via this link (Details of the Contemporary Scholarship winners are included in the intinerary).

Ali Undorf-Lay's excellent weblog - Ali Undorf’s Nuffield Year - has more coverage of this event and can be read via this link.

The objective of the conference was to:

• Develop and enhance international networks
• Give participants an overview of global agricultural and trade issues
• Take the participants out of their comfort zone
• Present successful businesses and their owner/managers vision
• Showcase Australian agriculture and industries

The theme of the week was:

Has agriculture the capacity to meet societies’ demand for food over the next 10-20 years?

This conundrum was posed at the outset on the Sunday morning during the introduction period. Also outlined were the many impediments to achieving that outcome, eg:

• The oil crisis and its impact on agriculture, manifesting in sharply increased cost of inputs and an increased demand for agriculture to produce energy.
• Climate change and the constraints placed on agriculture as a result of political pressure.
• Availability of human capital to manage any upside in agriculture.
• Therefore, it can be answered that agriculture will not have the capacity to meet food demands over the next 10-20 years. However, because of these significant constraints, the supreme irony is that huge opportunities will be created for individual primary producers because of these very impediments.

An attempt was made to address these issues and discuss how constraints are impacting on agriculture as well as how individual businesses are capitalising on opportunities. At the end of the week Phil O'Callaghan (O’Callaghan Rural Management) outlined issues that primary producers will need to address to capture the opportunities flowing to agriculture:

• Setting business structures for the future?
• How to improve your resource efficiency?
• What are the KPIs for agriculture?

The following people also made presentations as part of the CSC.

(pdf versions of their presentations can viewed by clicking on the respective links):

• Ashby, Rod. Free Range Pig Production (135 K)
• Barfield, Judy. Presentation notes answering the theme question (126 K)
• Barfield, Judy. Australian perspective on world agriculture/trade issues (1.75 MB)
• Blackwell, John. Irrigation's future (1.8 MB)
• Brownhill, David. Merrilong Pastorall Company – Changing tthe Family Farm (175 K)
• Eckard, Dr Richard. The Challenges and Opportunities for the Agriculture Sector under an Emissions Trading Scheme (850 K)
• Finger, Lucy. Irrigated agriculture R&D underpinning practice/change: hydrology research (7.8 MB)
• Goodwin, David. Irrigation Research in Horticulture (10.15MB)
• Hall, Rob. What Research and Innovation can do for Industry (1.32 MB)
• Hutchings, Tim. Redefining best practice (916 K)
• Lee, Dr Bruce. National Research Flagships Program (3.4 MB)
• Leeman, Jason. Adjustment through Water Trading (1.9 MB)
• Reading, Peter GRDC presentation (383 K)
• Smith Garry. Water Management and Trading (1.6 MB)
• Suzuki Milton. Brazilian Perspective on Global Agricultural/Trade Issues (4.3 MB)
• Tuckwell John. European Union’s perspective on agricultural and trade issues (515 K)
• Wainio John. 2008 U.S. Farm Bill: Where do we stand? (264 K)
• Williams David. DPI Tatura - Our history and environment (9.54 MB)

The following IFA presentations were also made as part of CSC.

• Heinrich, Andrew. How more efficient genetics can achieve improved carcass quality in sheep (6.1 MB)
• Kelly, Robert. Production or Marketing? (1.9 MB)
• Keogh, Mick. Future challenges for Australian agriculture (2.1 MB)
• Keogh, Mick. Opportunities for Australian agriculture (3.4 MB)
• Philip Camilla. Growth of Category Management and Supply Chain Efficiencies (1.87 MB)
• Snell, Jamie. What future the family farm? (6.1 MB)
• Walker, James. Agriculture Wool and Sheep Production in the Global Market (2.95 MB)
• Welsh Shaun. Increasing sow production and other technologies to improve efficiency in the Australian Pork Industry (556 K)