December 2017

Cotton Maps – best spraying practice

Following on from the recent rain, IREC, Cotton Australia and CottonInfo are calling for all farmers who are spraying to be aware of sensitive crops. Cotton Maps is a wonderful resource used to map cotton crops across the country. http://www.cottonmap.com.au/Map.

Please keep mapping fields, and flagging those that are not planted with cotton this season so they can be deleted. There are additional industry resources available about best spraying practice at: https://www.cottoninfo.com.au/pesticide-input-efficiency.

National Irrigators’ Council survey

National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) is currently working on a project funded by Energy Consumers Australia aimed at helping to get irrigators relief from high electricity prices.

If the study produces the results we hope, that could mean negotiating a better irrigator tariff, investigating opportunities for bulk buying groups and/or working on demand management. To do that, NIC need to collect some base information about use of electricity for pumping by irrigators.

NIC is asking for IREC members to please complete the short survey. The survey is easy to fill in and if there are questions that are not relevant to you then just leave them out.

The survey is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AEITF-irrigation.

Don’t wing it 

By Rice Growers Association of Australia

NSW DPI Game Licensing Unit launched their new native game bird management guide – Don’t Wing It: be an effective game bird hunter.

The guide was developed by DPI in partnership with the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia (RGA), NSW Police and a number of hunting organisations, following extensive consultation with stakeholders and local communities across the Riverina.

Don’t Wing It supports hunters and landholders to understand the important rules and regulations when hunting native ducks and ensures all participants have the correct information to hunt legally, ethically, safely and responsibly.

The guide is available at: https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/748655/dont-wing-it-booklet.pdf.

Regional wellbeing survey

The University of Canberra is currently conducting a regional wellbeing survey with the aim improving the wellbeing and quality of life of people living in rural and regional Australia. Survey participants can enter the draw to win one of 16 prizes worth a total of $7,000.

The survey is available at: http://www.regionalwellbeing.org.au.