PULSE Australia senior pulse crop development manager, Wayne Hawthorne, has been awarded this year's Seed of Light award for communicating research outcomes.

Mr Hawthorne was presented with the award by Grains Research and Development Corporation southern panel chairman David Shannon in Adelaide last week.

Based at Naracoorte in South Australia, Mr Hawthorne is a regular at Victorian pulse crop and grain field days, conferences and workshops.

Precision agriculture workshops

THE Birchip Cropping Group will run two precision agriculture workshops on March 22, to help growers fine-tune fertiliser and seeding rates.

The workshops are being run in partnership with the Precision Agriculture Association.

Sam Trengrove, from the Precision Agriculture Association, will help growers understand how to convert data collected at harvest into meaningful information for sowing.

The first workshop will be held in the BCG's conference room at Birchip from 8.30am to noon, while the second is being held at the Manangatang Golf Course from 2.30pm to 6pm.

Cost is $50 and registrations must be made by phoning Janine McIntyre at the BCG on (03) 5492 2787 by next Monday.

Fiona quits BCG

BIRCHIP Cropping Group extension manager Fiona Best has resigned from the farmer research group.

Ms Best has spent eight years with the BCG.

The cropping group has already started the search for a new extension and communication manager.

Soil acidification workshops

THE success of Southern Farming Systems' soil acidification field day at Wickliffe has prompted the group to hold two more workshops on the problem.

A workshop will be held at the Beaufort Community Development Centre next Tuesday at 9.30am. It will be followed by another at the SMV Rovers Football Club in Mininera next Wednesday, at noon.

Lunch will be provided.

Sustainable farming trial site

MALLEE Sustainable Farming Inc will set up a trial site at Ouyen as part of the national water-use efficiency initiative.

The national WUE program is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and involves 17 projects across Australia.

MSF has joined the CSIRO, Department of Primary Industries and Mallee Focus in running trials at Karoonda last year.