UNIVERSITY of Sydney student Nellie Evans took out first place in the individual category of the 2016 Australian Universities Crops Competition held in Temora, NSW, this week, while the team trophy went to the all-girl team from Kansas State University.
The wet weather provided additional challenges to AUCC competitors with Wednesday the only day of sunshine.
Over the three days almost 35mm of rain fell on the FarmLink Research Station, which hosted the practical component of the event.
The crops competition, an initiative of GrainGrowers, put tertiary ag students through their paces in a mixture of theory and hands-on tests covering agronomics and farm business management.
The rain didn’t dampen the commitment of the students who battled the conditions to inspect crops and compete in a series of practical assessments.
As well as five teams from Australian universities, four teams from the US also competed including Virginia Tech, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Iowa State University and Kansas State University.
GrainGrowers general manager industry development Michael Southan said the weather was a valuable learning opportunity.
“Crops competition competitors are our farm advisers and agronomists of the future,” Dr Southan said.
“In their future roles they will need to apply their skills in all sorts of trying weather conditions – including unrelenting rain.”
Dr Southan said the competition was about students being able to demonstrate their agronomic expertise and to network with industry representatives.
“This year there was an increased focus on connecting students with grains industry representatives including research, government and agribusiness professionals in the interest of developing career pathways and opportunities."
"A quiz night and industry dinner helped to introduce students to potential employers of the future."
2016 AUCC individual winner Nellie Evans said participation in the competition was a highly valuable experience.
"I'm shocked to have won,” Nellie said. “I didn't think it would be me."
After completing her studies Nellie aims to pursue a career in broadacre agronomy extension.
Nellie is provided the opportunity to take part in GrainGrowers 2017 International Study Tour to the US and Canada.
"I'm looking forward to returning to the US. I have studied there before," Nellie said.
Dr Southan said the competition, now in its eighth year, continued to go from strength to strength.
“It is fantastic that Australia’s major agricultural universities continue to fund and support students to compete,” Dr Southan said.
“In addition we again welcomed four international teams."
Dr Southan said the event would not be possible without FarmLink who provided access to their research station.
“We also thank sponsors the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Agricultural Societies Council of NSW, Graincorp, FarmLink, Westpac Agribusiness, AusWest Seeds, Temora Shire Council, Bayer, Monsanto, Riverina Local Land Services and Vision Agriculture.”
Past participants of the Australian Universities Crops Competition have gone on to successful careers in Australia’s grains industry including as agribusiness professionals, researchers, farmers, farm advisors, agronomists and grain traders.
The Australian Universities Crop Competition is part of GrainGrowers commitment to fostering skills development and leadership capability among Australian grain growers.
2016 Competing Universities: University of Sydney. University of Western Australia. Latrobe University. Charles Sturt University. Virginia Tech. Kansas State University. University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Curtin University. Iowa State University.
Individual Winners: 1.Nellie Evans - University of Sydney. 2. Brett Bushell - University of Sydney. 3. Javier Atayde - Charles Sturt University.
University Teams: 1. Kansas State University. 2. Charles Sturt University. 3. University of Sydney.