The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) has strengthened its efforts to help winegrape producers overcome major production constraints caused by disease.
TIA has published a guide for winegrape producers and service providers to conduct producer led vineyard trials for improved crop and disease management.
The Producer Led Trials: A guide for winegrape producers and service providers resource is for people seeking more effective and efficient ways to conduct an in-vineyard trial that integrates well with their existing vineyard operations and supports commercial decisions.
The guide contains four learning modules with step-by-step instructions, resources and case studies from multiple states in Australia on how to conduct simple and informative in-vineyard trials.
The project leader, TIA Professor Kathy Evans, said the guide will help growers make informed decisions.
"Information from effective in-vineyard trials can support decisions about small or large changes to vineyard operations while helping producers learn more about their production sites," Professor Evans said.
"However, conducting a trial means investing time and resources that could be applied elsewhere on the vineyard. Trials must therefore deliver timely information relevant to business needs, a practical outcome as well as a return on investment. If not, then trial results may be inconclusive or a complete waste of time and money.
"This Guide is about helping producers achieve a return on investment from trials in which they have ownership. This means striking a balance between trial rigour and producing commercially relevant results that apply to existing vineyard operations."
The guide has its origins from the findings of multiple research projects and case studies with winegrape producers, including trials to inform better management of botrytis bunch rot disease.
"Producers want to know by how much a crop variable changes due to their actions and are less interested in the statistics used by researchers. However, they still want confidence in results that they can interpret according to site characteristics and available solutions," Professor Evans said.
It's different from other types of on-farm trials.
"Some approaches encourage growers to adopt the methods of researcher, while other trials are designed to help growers learn about a new practise or technology."
"Our approach is to purposefully bridge the gap between research-led trials and on-farm trial and error. That is, a trial that has both rigour and relevance.
"The key principle for this guide is that the trial is directed at farm business decision making rather than scientific advancement."
The publication was funded by the TAS Farm Innovation Hub which is funded by the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund.
TAS Farm Innovation Hub Director Sandra Knowles said the guide was a great initiative to help build stronger partnerships between farmers and researchers.
"It's about making trials more useful on the ground, giving farmers a bigger role in shaping innovation, and making research more practical and relevant to real farming challenges," she said.
"By improving how on-farm trials are done, this guide can help farmers test new ideas that boost productivity and build resilience to changing climate conditions."
Industry support
Wine Tasmania have supported the project. Wine Tasmania's Viticulture and Winemaking officer Paul Smart said the guide will help growers.
"Several wine businesses across the state recently participated in a series of grower-led trials to investigate effective methods of managing botrytis," Mr Smart said.
"The feedback from growers participating in this research methodology, as outlined in the new guide released by TIA, has been overwhelmingly positive.
"Enabling growers to direct, conduct and monitor tailored on-farm trials with researcher support has delivered great results that's included quick adoption of new and effective practises, leading to a reduction in botrytis."
