The first half of 2025 has certainly flown by with growers now in full winter production. The landscape is full of beauty in the array of vegetables planted, from tiny seedlings to ready-to-harvest products. Looking forward, VegNET Southern Queensland has some exciting events, with planning well underway.

Full winter vegetable, onion and potato production in Southern Queensland is certainly a sight to see. The flurry of activity in the fields is the effect of careful and skilled planning. The produce being harvested from the area, and the vast array of product, is quite amazing. The planting and growing activities in the area shows it is busy times for our growers and industry.

A highlight for our growers and industry was to have Hort Connections 2025 at our back door in Brisbane. The networking opportunities Hort Connection provides is invaluable, each year being able to meet and get to know more and more of industry and growers. To even find just that ‘one little gem of knowledge’ is of value. Darren Brown, VegNET Officer, attended Hort Connections and the VegNET National Coordinated seminars and events in the days leading up to Hort Connections. For VegNET officers to be able to sit in on speaker sessions, spend time in the trade show and attend events, gives knowledge and connections they can pass on to local grower networks.

VegNET Southern Queensland is excited to announce that, through the VegNET Innovation Fund, funding has been secured for a local grower tour. This tour is also supported by the delivery partner, Lockyer Valley Growers Inc, and its dedicated volunteers and sponsors. In 2017 a Young Growers Study Tour operated with great success, with many of these young growers now actively attending VegNET events, and more importantly still working in the industry. It is fantastic to be able to get this event off the ground again.

The planning is in the final stages and the details of the tour will be coming out soon. The tour will commence in Gatton with a networking dinner to bring everyone together ready for gem tour. An early start will see the group head off to Brisbane to visit the Brisbane Product Markets. This will be the start of two days of visits across the Brisbane area, with an overnight stay in Brisbane City.

The tour will facilitate attendees to be able to see various areas of the supply chain, packaging facilities, retail stores, customer DCs and more. This year’s tour will be open to those who work within vegetable, potato and onion growing businesses, not just young growers. Those that work ‘behind the scenes’ of growing operations are as important as the growers in the field. It is fitting then, as the tour will be looking at the whole supply chain, to encourage those who work in all aspects of growing businesses to consider attending.

The second half of the year will also see several grower BBQs, our signature events, where growers can hear from three or four speakers then follow up with a BBQ dinner. The success of our grower BBQs is that they are not seminars, they are opportunities for speakers to have 10-15 minutes to share their expertise, then have the opportunity to meet and chat more deeply about topics one-on-one with growers over dinner and beyond.

Working lunches will also be occurring in the coming months, with attendees able to hear about topical issues over lunch. These are great opportunities for all who work in the growing businesses to network and learn.

Full winter vegetable, onion and potato production in Southern Queensland is a sight to see — the flurry of activity in the fields is the effect of careful and skilled planning.

FIND OUT MORE
Please contact Lockyer Valley Growers on 0456 956 340 or email ido@lockyervalleygrowers.com.au