Summary

This Regional Internship in Applied Grains Research successfully delivered a two-year internship for Declan Anderson, assisting the development of skills and knowledge building across broad areas of applied research and extension in the grains industry.

The internship program continues to succeed, providing a stepping-stone for early career researchers to be up-skilled, with almost all recent candidates continuing a career in grains research, and filling regional roles across areas of South Australia from the Upper and Mid-North, Yorke Peninsula and Eyre Peninsula.

Background

Hart has offered their regional internship program since 2016 to encourage agricultural science graduates to pursue a career in applied grains research.

The role has focused on providing high-quality training across all aspects of applied research including opportunities to gain exposure across a range of communications and extension methods at events and through different mediums such as blogs, videos or podcast.

Research Aims

The core objectives of the project were to:

• Encourage high quality agricultural science students to pursue careers in applied research through a regionally based internship program.
• Give graduates with a specific interest in applied R, D & E an overview of the fundamentals of applied RD&E relevant to the grains industry.
• Advance the current regional internship program and maintain interest generated among the University of Adelaide BSc Ag students for the position.

In The Field

Declan Anderson, from Ouyen in the Victorian Mallee, was selected for the two-year internship. Declan’s main project in 2021 was working with Hart staff and SARDI’s Tara Garrard on Septoria tritici blotch (STB) in wheat. This included two trials at Hart investigating variety resistance, fungicide timing and yield loss, along with an experiment at Waite.

In 2022 Declan took on projects investigating performance of long coleoptile wheat, pre-emergent herbicides and a cereal crown rot trial at Hart. He also implemented a farm-scale demonstration alongside a local farmer at Blyth for a pulse inoculation case study.

Results

The project was successful in providing Declan with a wide range of experiences in applied research, development and extension.

After his internship Declan joined Trengove Consulting at Bute in a research role, working across a variety of disease and soil projects.

The activities performed in the recruitment of the interns will increase awareness and interest in applied research careers amongst agricultural science students.

Hart continue to provide internship opportunities for applied grains research with Kaidy Morgan appointed in 2023 through funding from the SA Drought Hub, and more recently Myfanwy ‘Miffy’ Purslow in 2024 through co-funding support from SAGIT and the SA Drought Hub.