THE AUSTRALIAN pulse industry will descend upon Horsham in Victoria in mid-October.
The Australian Pulse Conference will be held in conjunction with the annual Southern Pulse Agronomy in and around the Wimmera city from October 15-17.
Organisers are delighted with the mix of international and prominent local speakers they have attracted for the event.
The field day will be held on-farm to the west of Horsham on October 15, while the conference will take place in the Horsham Church of Christ conference centre on the remaining two days.
Topics will include international pulse markets, alternative grazing legumes and weed management in pulse crops.
There will be some heavy hitting international speakers at the event.
A French speaker will talk about her experiences with field peas.
Judith Burstin is the director of research at UMR Argoecology of INRA (the French Department of Agriculture) in Dijon, France and will draw on her skills in agronomy, quantitative genetics and breeding and genomics to make her presentation in the genomics section of the program.
Dr Burstin leads a group of 30 researchers in France that focuses on plant adaption in peas to maintain yield and quality in the context of low-input farming and climate change.
Another international speaker to join the program is Nevin Rosaasen, the chair of the board of directors at Biological Carbon Canada.
Mr Rosaasen has published papers in the field of carbon account and life cycle analysis and grows pulses on the firmly farm. He will be speaking at the conference on pulse trade and marketing.
Local talent includes Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada, who leads the Hypersens Laboratory in Melbourne.
Professor Zarco-Tejada's work focuses on remote sensing, precision agriculture and vegetation stress detection using hyperspectral and thermal images from manned and unmanned aircraft systems.
He will address the topic of remote sensing.
At the field day there will be a focus on agronomy.
Pulse breeder Jason Brand, Agriculture Victoria, said it was a useful day for all within the industry.
"Our field day is an ideal opportunity to hear updates on the industry, to spend time out in the field and meet with growers and other industry representatives," Dr Brand said.
There will also be the launch of three new pulse varieties - one each of lentil, chickpea and faba bean - as well as the opportunity to view a historic variety demonstration.