vegetablesWA
vegetablesWA
Install App?
vegetablesWA
wagrower.vegetableswa.com.au
This is how the Install App dialog will look like once your App goes live.
BY SAM GRUBIŠA
INDUSTRY
EXTENSION OFFICER,
VEGETABLESWA
As the warmth of summer abandons us, the icy mornings and drizzly days bring a different set of troubles to our farm gates. Frost, hail and water logging along with ‘super fun’ bacterial and fungal diseases, become a potential threat. Ensure a solid spray regime is in place and that you are rotating through different active ingredients, to minimize chemical resistance. Also, be careful with your own personal safety. While muddy boots, wet tractor steps and slippery concrete are a ‘fact of farm life’, they can also be the cause of nasty injuries… a concussion or broken arm isn’t going to help your bottom line!
While the weather cools, things in the vegetablesWA office have started to heat up. A Food Safety workshop, MC’d by our own Joel Dinsdale, with Dr SP Singh as the star attraction was both engaging and informative. The research into ensuring our produce is as ‘clean and green’ as our reputation suggests is rather impressive. Organised by vegetablesWA, the event was open to all industry stakeholders in Horticulture. We had in attendance: growers, industry body representatives, Government department representatives, industry service providers and market agents, which shows how important the issue of food safety is to the whole supply chain.
There has been a slight focus on the southern regions of late with Karnup, Myalup, Donnybrook and Manjimup getting multiple visits from myself and various members of the VegWA Team. Two of the stand outs were the four man (okay — three men and one woman) dash down to Manjimup covering all areas of extension. Export, enchmarking and QA, while far less glamourous than farm work, have been kicking goals on many fronts.
Another win for the West is the upcoming UNE — Weeds in Veg, Cover Crop Field Day. With information collected from many of our growing regions and the trial site in Myalup, UNE and their associated project/ industry stakeholders are offering a very interesting snapshot into the WA ‘weed scene’. With the release of fact sheets covering some of the country’s most prolific horticultural plant-based pests, continued research into seeding and germination suppression of weeds and now a field day; WA is getting some valuable additions to its weed management information arsenal.
If you are interested in attending the field day on 20th June at Ivankovich Farms in Myalup, check out the vegetablesWA Facebook page, website or shoot me an email.
I don’t miss waiting for my gumboots to warm up in front of the heater or the ‘Rudolph Red’ nose of pre-dawn on the farm, however packing for a grower visit to the very southern and very cold Albany is proving to be a challenge. Farm Sam could chuck on her thickest, daggiest trackies, layer up under her favourite plush flanno and pull on her woolliest ‘old faithful’ beanie to cover her rain hating, crazy, ethnic hair; Extension Sam isn’t as lucky or feral! If you could try not to laugh too hard at my chattering teeth, excessive use of scarves, the way I lovingly cradle a cup of hot coffee or my ‘softness’ in general… that’d be great!
MORE INFORMATION
Contact Sam on 0427 373 037 or email
sam.grubisa@vegetableswa.com.au.
Total Quality Assurance Systems
Total Quality Assurance Systems (TQAS) has been operating without any serious disruption to services. Our food safety activities have been recognised as an essential service to the food industry.
Mixed species cover crops
The Soil Wealth and Integrated Crop Protection (ICP) project works with growers nationally to put soil management and plant health research into practice.
New dual - acting coating
Over the course of their journey from the open fields to the produce displays at grocery stores, fresh vegetables and fruits can sometimes get contaminated by microorganisms. These items can then spoil other produce, spreading the contamination further and increasing the number of food items that can cause illnesses.
Queensland fruit fly
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has been responding to a Queensland fruit fly (Qfly) outbreak within the Perth metropolitan area since March 2020.
Grower tour
Australian potato industry members embarked on an overseas adventure to New Zealand’s Canterbury region from 12-15 February, where 19 representatives from Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia gained an insight into Tomato potato psyllid (TPP) and how the New Zealand potato industry has managed this pest.