TWO COTTON producers from central NSW will travel the world over winter looking to investigate potential means of improvement for their farm businesses.
As part of Nuffield Scholarships Richard Quigley, Trangie and Billy Browning, Narromine, will look to find potential efficiencies that can help them remain competitive in a cut-throat global fibre marketplace.
Mr Browning and Mr Quigley are heading to Singapore, France, the UK, Canada and the US in June and July.
They will travel with six other farmers from different sectors from Australia, Zimbabwe and Ireland and will study topics such as sustainable family farming, fresh produce supply chains and more.
Highlights of the trip will include a visit to Perry Farms in Canada, a family farming business integrating irrigated horticulture crops such as potatoes with cereals and oilseeds and a trip the world's biggest fresh produce market Rungis International in France, which sprawls over an incredible 231 hectares.
Mr Browning said irrigation would be a particular focus.
"I am keen to drive the return on the irrigation business," Mr Browning said.
He said there were a lot of concepts that could have application within his own operation.
"I see a real opportunity to investigate irrigation designs, irrigated commodities, and multiple water uses from a single a water source," he said.
Mr Browning, who is supported by the Australian Department of Agriculture and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, is particularly keen to investigate alternative irrigation options that enable farmers to best utilise water and renewable solutions such as solar pumps and battery storage for bore and river water.
Sustainable water use is front of mind for Mr Quigley too.
Through his scholarship supported by the Cotton Research & Development Corporation and Cotton Australia, he is exploring cropping systems and techniques which preserve moisture in zero-tillage farming systems.
"I am very excited to travel across the world and look at agriculture globally, explore other businesses and see what we can adapt to our climate and systems back home in Australia," Mr Quigley said.
He said he was fascinated to see how US farmers were dealing with their current horror drought.
"With drought scenarios in the US similar to what eastern Australia faced in 2017 to 2019, it will be interesting to draw on their experiences on what impact ground cover and crop residues play."
But he does not just plan to learn from what is happening abroad.
"I am also keen to do some domestic travel as I believe we have some fantastic operations on home soil."
Nuffield Australia CEO and 2013 Nuffield Scholar, Jodie Redcliffe says the organisation has been busy organising a plethora of mind-expanding research trips for Australian farmers.
"International travel is back, and Nuffield Australia is seizing the opportunity to send farmers abroad to bring nnovative ideas home," Ms Redcliffe said.
Applications are now open for Nuffield Scholarships in 2023 and Nuffield Australia will award up to 20 scholarships.
Among those on offer is a cotton industry scholarship supported by Cotton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC).
Each scholarship is valued at $30,000 and enables scholars to spend 14 weeks of travel over two years to study a topic important to their industry.
Applications close on Friday 17 June 2022, with the recipients to be announced in September.