It has been a busy time for VegNET – Victoria (North, West and South-East regions). AUSVEG’s Danielle Park has taken on the role as VegNET – Victoria Regional Development Officer, and this article looks at recent project activities and how the next phase will continue to collaborate with vegetable growers across Victoria’s north, west and south-east.

The new VegNET Regional Development Officer (RDO) for the Northern, Western and South-Eastern regions of Victoria is Danielle Park.

As coordinator of the current EnviroVeg Program – facilitated by AUSVEG – Danielle has worked closely alongside outgoing RDO Dimi Kyriakou and formed close connections with many growers in the region.

Danielle has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Business Administration from Charles Sturt University. She has over 20 years’ experience in the agriculture industry. Her previous roles include on-farm operations, state government agricultural extension and market research.

RM Consulting Group (RMCG) has delivered VegNET – Victoria since 2016. RMCG and AUSVEG have worked collaboratively over recent months to ensure a seamless transition of the project that continues to support Victoria’s vegetable growers and connect them to levy-funded R&D that fosters innovation and best practice on-farm. From a grower’s perspective, it has been very much ‘business as usual’ for VegNET in Victoria.

Supporting vegetable producers

RMCG has successfully delivered VegNET in the Northern, Western and South-Eastern regions of Victoria for the past six years, which has helped growers improve their growing practices and profitability.

Given its previous success with VegNET – and its extensive experience in agricultural extension and program monitoring and evaluation (M&E) – RMCG is working with AUSVEG as an independent M&E Manager for the national VegNET program, while continuing to deliver VegNET in Tasmania.

With RMCG’s expanded program role, it was mutually agreed to transition the VegNET – Victoria position from RMCG to AUSVEG. This will ensure that future extension for the regions will build on the strong foundation set by Dimi and RMCG, and growers will benefit from AUSVEG’s industry networks and close ties with local growers.

Dimi will continue working at RMCG to benefit the horticulture sector, including the vegetable industry’s Soil Wealth Integrated Crop Protection project, and looks forward to continuing to engage with growers and industry. She has enjoyed delivering VegNET in Victoria in 2021 and working on exciting initiatives to help growers benefit from levy R&D investments and improve their farming practices.

Getting soil moisture monitoring right

Soil moisture monitoring can provide a real-time and predictive decision-making support tool for growers to improve their irrigation scheduling and water use efficiency. It allows growers to make informed decisions on when and how much to irrigate by providing data on soil moisture content from varying depths within the soil profile.

VegNET – Victoria has developed a poster to explain why, how, and when soil moisture monitoring could be appropriate for vegetable growers, and the key issues and questions to consider. The link to the poster can be found here.

Jason Agosta with native vegetation insectaries planted on a dam bank at AAA Farms in Werribee South, Victoria. Image courtesy of Stephen Moore.

Beneficial bugs boosted

In Werribee South, vegetable growers are trialling native vegetation insectaries on their farms to boost beneficial insect activity and better manage pests, prevent weeds, and reduce soil erosion.

AAA Farms and Mason Fresh Produce have worked closely with local agronomist Stephen Moore from E.E. Muir & Sons and Karen Thomas from the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment

Some of the VegNET – Victoria resources that are available.

Management Authority to design the trial sites, source plants, and organise the plantings.

VegNET – Victoria helped to facilitate discussions to kick off the trial back in 2019 and has since been instrumental in communicating progress and results back to industry.

A recently published case study outlines the trial development, along with some early results and next steps. It also provides some practical tips for vegetable growers to set up an insectary on their farm. The case study can be found here.

Tune in to a webinar recording from VegNET – Victoria to learn more about on-farm insectaries and how to get started, including the benefits of planting native vegetation. You can also access the presentation slides as well as other useful resources.

The webinar can be viewed here. It is also available as a shorter 30-minute podcast that can be accessed here.

Celebrating R&D adoption

The VegNET projects in Victoria introduced the R&D Adoption and Industry Impact Award at the annual AUSVEG VIC Awards for Excellence in 2017 to highlight how the state’s growers are benefiting from R&D outcomes on-farm – whether it’s pre-harvest, post-harvest or sharing key findings with the wider industry.

A case study has been developed to capture the achievements of the winners of this award since 2017, when the inaugural winner was Andrew Fragapane from Fragapane Farms. Additional past winners included Schreurs & Sons as well as Mark and Darren Schreurs.

The East Gippsland Vegetable Innovation Days (EGVID 2020) received the R&D Adoption and Industry Impact Award at the 2021 AUSVEG VIC Awards for Excellence.

Click here to read more about the winners and their R&D innovations.

Find out more

Please contact Danielle Park on 0432 324 822 or email danielle.park@ausveg.com.au.

VegNET 3.0 is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund.

This project has been funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government.

Project Number: VG21000