THE search is on again to find Australia's best farm spray operator, who will win a $15,000 prize pack including a study tour to Great Britain.
Last year leading crop protection company, Syngenta, joined forces with Rural Press, to launch the inaugural annual SPRAY awards to showcase best practice in the application of chemicals across the whole range of crops.
The competition aims to provide recognition of the top operators and inspire others to adopt more efficient methods of applying sprays.
Farm chemicals are a vital tool for modern agriculture but they need to be applied as carefully and efficiently as possible to reduce waste (and money) and ensure their use doesn't impact on neighbouring crops and the environment.
State finalists will win a trip to this year's Ag-Quip field days on August 17-19 at Gunnedah in North West NSW, where the national winner will be announced.
This week advertisements will start appearing in Rural Press publications (see p26) inviting farmers and spray contractors to fill out a questionnaire to enter the inaugural SPRAY Awards. (SPRAY stands for Sustainable, Productive, Responsible Applicator of the Year).
All entries, which close on April 15, will receive a 12-month subscription to Syngenta's Agricast weather and spray window forecast website.
All correct entries will progress to the second judging stage. The State judging will include on-farm assessments.
The national winner will be selected from the five State finalists - NSW-ACT, Victoria-Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland-Northern Territory.
Last year's national winner was Darren Schreurs, a Victorian vegetable grower, whose implementation of new technologies and farming practices attracted the attention of both the State and national judges.
Second was Evan Lord, assistant farm manager at Mukoora, Ardlethan, NSW, and third was Andrew Kennedy, a spray contractor from Mt Gambier, SA.
The other state finalists were Daniel Serra from the Atherton Tableland in north Queensland and Dean Morgan, Wagin, WA.
"Technology is very important on our farm," Mr Schreurs said.
"Machinery such as our Househam sprayer is state-of-the-art when it comes to sprayers and makes the job much more efficient and comfortable."
Peter Schreurs and Sons is a family-run business at Devon Meadows, about 50km south east of Melbourne, which produces a number of vegetables including leeks (the main crop), baby cos lettuce, baby endive, baby wombok, radicchio, parsnips and kohl rabiwith.
The SPRAY Awards judges were impressed that Mr Schreurs was always seeking ways to do things better.
"I have always tried to do the best I can but before the SPRAY Awards I had no idea how I compared with other spray operators," he said.
"For me, winning the 2009 title was fantastic but I learnt so much from the judges and other entrants, just being part of the competition was a very rewarding experience."
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