GRDC Southern Regional Panel member Geoff McLeod said it was a good way to keep farmers informed.

“GRDC invests just under $200 million in research and development, and this is an opportunity for growers to understand what some of the outcomes are from that work,” he said.

“It was really an opportunity for growers to get some information on what some of the outcomes are for research and development for what they're investing in.”

Topics ranged from variable rate application to discussions about growing faba beans.

Mr McLeod said it was important to understand the specifics behind what makes a farm successful.

“In the morning we had two presentations, one was from a consultant that's been analysing a whole lot of farm businesses to understand what some of the key drivers and how to you deal with variability from year to year,” he said.

“The other one talked about, rather than dealing with a paddock as a single unit, breaking it up.

“Say there are some poor yielding areas and some good yielding areas, how do you actually tailor your inputs to get a better return from your whole paddock.

“So you might put less fertilizer on one area and more on another for example, that's called variable rate application.”

With so many topics discussed on the day, it was difficult to pinpoint just one thing that those in attendance should take away from it all.

Mr McLeod said what one individual grower took away from the discussion might differ completely from another grower.

“The big take home message is to go home and analyse your own business and try and better understand what is driving your profit,” he said.

“Try to determine what is driving your costs and how you can change what you're doing to increase your whole farm profitability, rather than just focusing on an individual crop.”