Belmont Field Day connects GxExM with latest agtech

Livestock producers and land managers from across Central Queensland can embrace the latest innovations in land and cattle management at a Belmont Research Station field day scheduled for Thursday, 10 August 2023.

To be hosted by the Central Queensland Livestock Centre of Excellence, the field day will connect the dots between environmental, business and genetic selection pressures with the latest technologies and research insights. 

The CQ Livestock Centre of Excellence is a partnership between CQUniversity Australia, AgForce Queensland, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) and the Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA), which aims to improve on-farm productivity through producer-led research and extension activities. 

The field day is the latest in a series the collaboration has held at Belmont since its inception in 2018.

With carbon-neutrality and drought preparedness currently front of mind for the industry as El Nino looms large, this year’s field day will include new tools and techniques to monitor and maintain land condition, optimize pasture cover and productivity, measure carbon footprint and mitigate methane emissions, and connect these new performance drivers to genetic selection.

Presentations will include:

• QDAF on land condition measurement tools and the latest pasture productivity research; 
• AgForce on its AgCarE tool to measure the natural capital of grazing businesses; 
• FBA on setting stocking rates in response to climate forecasts, and strategic tree planting to mitigate heat stress; 
• The TNQ Drought Hub and agtech developers on the latest drought preparedness tools; and 
• CQU researchers on automated phenotyping technologies and dynamic nutritional supplementation to mitigate methane emissions.

The field day will commence at 8:30am on Thursday, 10 August 2023, at Belmont Research Station, 887 Etna Creek Rd, 30 minutes north of Rockhampton.