GRDC Grains Research and Development : Keith Pengilley Panel Profile

Keith Pengilley is the general manager of a dryland and irrigated family farming business at Conara in the northern Midlands of Tasmania, operating a 7000 hectare mixed-farming enterprise over three properties.

Keith is also a director of Tasmanian Agricultural Producers P/L, a grain accumulation, storage, marketing and export business.

He joined the Panel in 2011, having always had a keen interest in research and development, particularly in the grains sector.

'I was very much of the opinion that I always wanted to make a difference. There's no point being on the sidelines throwing stones - you may as well be in there, trying to make a difference for all grain growers,' Keith says.

'My children are also likely to have a future in agriculture so I wanted to make sure they were well positioned going forward.

Keith is keen to see GRDC-funded research and development delivering value and useful outputs to levy-paying growers who require tailored solutions to their cropping challenges.

He says it is therefore important for industry to recognise that every grower is an individual, farming under wide-ranging circumstances and conditions.

'We need to realise that each grower is in a unique position and their particular issues are of crucial importance to them. It is critical that we deliver to all growers the best varieties suited to their farming systems and the best management of those varieties, as well as new technologies and products that growers can implement on their farms with confidence.

'We need to be involved in national research but then we need to bring the outcomes of that research closer and closer down to the grower level. That means bringing in local researchers to ground truth and validate the science to make sure it will fit in with the local environment and then taking it to the next stage of getting the information right in front of growers by partnering with our faming systems groups.'

While Keith advocates for a broad cross-section of growers throughout the southern cropping region, he is particularly passionate about the high rainfall zone (HRZ) and irrigation farming systems that characterise Tasmania.

He believes a great opportunity exists for increasing grains production out of the southern cropping region's HRZ, and views research projects looking into new varieties and improving farm systems management as continued priorities for the future.

'One such new investment is the hyper-yielding cereals program which is designed for the HRZ, looking at a range of germplasm around the world and also here in Australia.

'Obviously yields is one component, but the project is also focused on how we as growers, researchers, advisors and industry manage those varieties to get the most value out of them, and we will be looking downstream at who the end user is going to be.'

Keith encourages growers wishing to bring issues to the attention of the GRDC to contact members of the Panel or their local members of Regional Cropping Solutions Networks which support the Panel.

M 0448 015539

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Region South