RAS FIELD CROP COMPETITION

The long standing Field Wheat Competition was restructured in 1996 to expand on  the range of crops that could be entered and to place greater emphasis on a variety of criteria in the judging process.  Entrants have the choice of entering a cereal grain, legume, oilseed or grazing crop such as oats.

With no other independent, unbiased, similar crop competition conducted in NSW, the competition now places particular emphasis on the importance of management practices that contribute to producing profitable crops rather than using yield as the all embracing measure of sustainable and profitable grain production.  Under the previous competition most recognition was given to entrants who had received good rainfall prior to judging.

Estimation of yield will still be a vital part of the compilation of a gross margin sheet, requiring a target yield estimate as an instrument of profitability potential.  A high scoring crop in all of the judging categories should have the potential to be a high yielding crop.

AIMS:
* To seek excellence in grain crop production
* To enhance sustainable and profitable grain crop production
* To engage grain producer's in-groups to enhance overall crop management
* To identify and publicly acknowledge successful, sustainable, profitable grain producers.

Bringing producers together in-groups for educational purposes is one of the major objectives of Show Societies and Agricultural organisations.  The Field Crop Competition assists in achieving this objective through the judging process.