Summary

The annual Ag Excellence Forum and Awards provide a valuable opportunity for South Australian farmers and industry stakeholders to come together to share knowledge and recognise notable achievements. The 2019 event was a resounding success, with a Thursday night Awards Dinner followed by forum presentations throughout the Friday. Respected subject experts addressed 117 delegates on a broad range of topics aimed at building innovation, resilience and success in South Australian farming.

Background

Established in 2004, the annual Ag Excellence Forum and Awards Dinner provides an environment for grower groups and industry stakeholders to share knowledge, develop new ideas and foster trends in agricultural innovation, technology and extension.

In 2019, a total of 117 delegates attended the Thursday evening dinner and Friday forum. They included farmer group employees and contractors, farmer committee members, natural resource management and primary industries agency staff and agricultural industry representatives.

Research Aims

The core objectives of the project were to:

• Engage representatives from all farming systems groups in SA, along with key investment and research partners.
• Build knowledge, increase understanding of key issues and opportunities, and improve effectiveness of the State’s agricultural sector.
• Recognise achievements and success by members of the state’s grain and livestock industries.

In The Field

Delegates to the 2019 Ag Excellence Forum were able to attend a range of specialist subject presentations by highly respected speakers including:

• Debbie Gibson, Principal Research Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM)
• Richard Heath, Executive Director, Farm Institute
• Marius Cuming, General Manager, Australian Wool Innovation Limited
• Nic Henry Jones, Director, Market Me
• Dr Katja Hogendoorn, Senior Researcher, School of Ag Food & Wine, University of Adelaide
• Tony Randall, Team Leader Sus Ag, SA Murray-Darling Basin (SAMDB)
• Belinda Cay, Director, AgCommunicators
• Fiona Hart, Exec Officer, Riverine Plains
• Jay Cummins, Director, International Agriculture for Development

They provided a rich variety of technical knowledge of special relevance to the ag industry.

The Awards Dinner featured Something Wild Australia Owner and General Manager Daniel Motlop, and a brief talk by 2018 Winner Georgie Keynes of Barossa Improved Grazing Group (BIGG), on how the organisation invested its prize money.

A record number of award applications were received and the major 2019 Grower Group Award, sponsored by the SA Dept of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) went to Women Together Learning (WoTL) for their educational proposal to benefit their members and community.

The Ag Excellence Perpetual Award for Outstanding Service was presented to long-term sustainable agriculture advocate Michael Richards.

Communications about the forum, award submissions and award winners were delivered across a number of print and social media platforms including major metropolitan and regional newspapers; the Ag Excellence website, Facebook page and Twitter feed; and directly to approximately 500 subscribers via the Ag Excellence e-News email.

Results

The 2019 Forum and Awards Dinner saw a high number of return delegates, indicating that the event is seen as excellent value. There was also a record number of Award applications, pointing to the success of the new online application process.

Seventy percent of delegates attended both the Forum and the Award Dinner.

In survey feedback from the event, 90% of respondents said they learned something they intended to action and 83% said they would attend the next Ag Excellence Forum.

Respondents gave the event an average satisfaction score of 79/100.