New Crop Pest in the Mid West
There's a mysterious weevil damaging crops in the Mid West.
The so-called ‘Dongara weevil’ was first reported a decade ago but researchers are now saying it could be a threat to crops.
DPIRD Research Scientists and MIG have been trying to capture these mini-beasts!
Crop study assesses dung beetle numbers
15 Feb 2022 Farm Weekly. In response to local producer interest in the beetle and its contribution to farming, the Mingenew Irwin Group (MIG), supported by the State NRM Program through a Community Stewardship Grant, plans to use field experiments to assess the effect broadacre crop seeding may have on dung beetle populations.
Digging Deep on Sandy Soil Ground Cover
7 Feb 2022 Farm Weekly. A project in the Northern Ag region is set to explore the impacts of seeding systems and stubble management in broadacre cropping to ensure ground cover is maintained on sandy soil types. Led by Mingenew Irwin Group and funded by the Future Drought Fund the project ultimately aims to mitigate the production risk caused by changing climate and significant climatic events by giving growers the information they need to make informed management decisions.
Northern Trial to Assess Soil Balance
27 Jan 2022 Farm Weekly. As farmers focus on carbon footprints and how to look at soil within a natural capital accounting framework, there is increasing importance on how fertiliser use and other land management relate to the bigger soil health practice. That is something the Mingenew Irwin Group plans to investigate over the next two years through a project that will develop case studies and extension material through working with farmers to undertake soil analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring.
Project aims to help with falling number decisions
13 Dec 2021 Farm Weekly. After uncharacteristic seasonal conditions in the northern grain growing region, a project has been developed to assist growers with decision-making about falling numbers.
The project is an investment by the Grains Research and Development Corporation in conjunction with the Mingenew Irwin Group (MIG), Northern Agri Group, Yuna Farm Improvement Group, Mullewa Dryland Farmers Initiative, Liebe Group in the Geraldton port zone and other groups that may wish to participate.
Big plans for Mingenew crop display and tour amid agritourism boom
13 Dec 2021 Countryman. Visitors to the Mid West could this year snag a front-row seat to seeding or harvest, with a local farming group hoping to use QR codes at paddocks to deliver video footage from inside the headers straight to people’s phones as agritourism in the region booms.
It is all part of the Mingenew Irwin Group’s grand plan for its Shuttle Alley and DIY crop tour projects this year.
Closing the economic yield gap of grain legumes in WA
Dec 2021 GGA Website. GGA will be one of 17 collaborators in a new GRDC funded project 'Closing the Economic Yield Gap of Grain Legumes in WA'. This ambitious and comprehensive four year project will combine extension, trials and technical and economic analysis to support growers to access the benefits of legumes in crop rotations moving forward.
MIG trials program makes for busy 2020
8 Aug 2020 Farm Weekly. This year's trial program is a busy one for the Mingenew Irwin Group (MIG) with trials covering a range of nutrients and crops, scattered from Yuna to Three Springs and out to Canna.
In addition to planned spray trials, MIG has been implementing some others, based on feedback given at the MIG Beers and Ideas sessions, that utilise spray equipment:
A DUNNART has been spotted on a property at Yandanooka.
10 Aug 2020 Farm Weekly , A Dunnart has been spotted on a property at Yandanooka.
The dunnart, which is believed to be a fat-tailed dunnart, was found under a piece of tin in a paddock which was being seeded.
Dung beetles important to soil health
27 Apr 2020 Farm Weekly , Ms Mason spoke at the recent MIG livestock event at Irwin where she gave a run down of the Dung Beetle Ecosystem Engineers project that MIG has been undertaking along with The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Warren Catchment Council.