Art4Agriculture and Cotton Australia sponsored Young Farming Champion Richie Quigley has had a huge year capping it of by winning the first overall and the individual prize in the 2013 Australian Universities Crop Competition (AUCC) which includes an international ten-day study tour to compete in the Collegiate Crops Contest held in November 2013 in Kansas, USA. Richie’s award will include airfares, accommodation, meals, enterprise visits, and registration to compete in the Collegiate Crops Contest.
“I wasn’t expecting anything, especially seeing the level of knowledge among the other competitors. I come from a farming background and the trip to USA is a good opportunity to visit some farms” said Richie.
The winning team: Richard Quigley, Eleanor Percival, Sarah Waldron-Jones, Emily Lamberton, Eleanor Readford, Constance Mort and Haruna Suenaga with Dr Adriana Hoxha
This is extra exciting for our team as 2011 Young Farming Champion Heidi Cheney designed and instigated the inaugural Australian Universities Crop Competition
During her time at Grain Growers Heidi established a capacity building strategic plan which led to the development and delivery of several new initiatives including: The Innovation Generation Conference, the Australian Future Grain Leaders Program as well as the Australian University Crops Competition.
The University of Sydney team from the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment also won the 2013 Australian Universities Crop Competition (AUCC) based on the three highest scoring individuals from each university.The competition was held in Temora, NSW from 18-20 September 2013, organised by Grain Growers and sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, GRDC and Farmoz. Charles Sturt University came in second and Curtin University came in third.
During the competition the students had the opportunity to take their knowledge from the lecture theatre to the field. The competition included components like farm management, grain grading, live crop yield potential, live crop weed and foliar diseases identification and soil analyses.
“I was surprised from their commitment in training as a team during our stay in Temora”, said the team lead coach, Dr Adriana Hoxha. Senior Lecturer from the Department of Plant and Food Sciences, Dr Daniel Tan said, “Our agronomy and soil science programs provide our students with a solid foundation to apply their practical skills in the field.”
The University of Sydney entered seven students into the competition this year, with the group led by Dr Adriana Hoxha, along with support from student coach, Johanna Couchman who won third place in the 2012 Australian Universities crops Competition and a ten-day International Study Tour to the USA. The students in the Sydney team are Richard Quigley, Eleanor Percival, Sarah Waldron-Jones, Emily Lamberton, Eleanor Readford, Constance Mort and Haruna Suenaga