Bowen growers look to composting at AORA workshop
Growcom was pleased to host the AORA Compost in Agriculture workshop on Friday the 25th of March, in Bowen
The day saw 29 registered attendees taking the opportunity to learn about the technical aspects of compost production and one of the best presentations to date around soil health, soil biology and how these are enhanced using composts. The event was sponsored by the Queensland government, Queensland Farmers Federation and AORA and hosted by Growcom for the Dry Tropics and Tablelands regions.
Of the attendees at Bowen 14 were growers who travelled from as far away as Mackay and the Charters Towers regions. All growers said they were always interested in composting but now with the surging prices of chemical fertilizers they see composting as an essential component of trying to rein in production costs and protect their soil assets.The workshop was hosted under the Hort360 GBR program and presented by well known agronomist Mr David Hall.
Post workshop attendees travelled to VJK Produce at Eurie Ck to look at this producer’s composting operations where some 15 000 tons of compost is created yearly for use on some 2500 hectares of production land. VJK utilize sugar mill bagasse, a byproduct of sugar milling and poultry manure to support the recycling of the farms own waste products from production and packing operations. Owner director Mr. Jamie Jurgens explained the family’s journey to organic farming and composting and had everybody’s attention when he described how this large scale horticultural production enterprise no longer uses any chemical fertilizers. VJK are also one of the first producers in Queensland to become Reef Certified under the Hort360 GBR program which assists growers to meet best practices for water quality on the GBR. Growcom’s Bowen based HORT360 GBR and Reef Certification Facilitator Mr. Luke Hargreaves said the day was a great success and all attendees took away new knowledge and enthusiasm. Of the non-farming attendees, the bulk were from Reef Catchments in Mackay, Landcare, North Queensland Dry Tropics NRM and regional agronomy services Farmacist.
All these people were eager to take this new knowledge back to their own grower members and clients which further value adds the day.
More workshops will be taking place in Queensland in the coming months as part of the AORA/QFF Compost in Agriculture Workshop series.
