See who was elected to the NSW Farmers board

Grains industry advocate Justin Everitt from Brocklesby has been elected to the board of NSW Farmers.

Grains industry advocate Justin Everitt of Brocklesby in southern NSW has been elected to the board of NSW Farmers.

Other members of the board include Xavier Martin, who is also president, Bec Reardon, vice president, Peter Wilson, treasurer, Alan Brown, Bronwyn Petrie, Oscar Pearse, Shane Kilby, and Ian McColl.

More than 200 delegates, farmers and politicians have gathered in Sydney this week for the NSW Farmers Annual Conference.

Mr Everitt, who is also chairman of the NSW Farmers grains committee, said the event had been an opportunity to raise awareness about concerns affecting cropping farmers.

He said being elected to the NSW Farmers board was a humbling experience and it was an opportunity have a say on agricultural issues and represent other farmers.

Three motions from the grains committee were passed at the conference. The first related to achieving fairer and more equitable grain trading contract rules.

Mr Everitt said the next step was to take the recommendations to Grain Trade Australia to gain further support.

A crop of Boree wheat at Aintree Park at Brocklesby in southern NSW owned by Justin Everitt. Picture: Nikki Reynolds

A practical example of the trading terms that farmers were concerned about was the fact that once the grain hit the receival truck it was still in fact the responsibility of the grower.

“We could hear of a case where grain ends up in Queensland, and a grower can still be responsible for the bill of the freight,” Mr Everitt said.

Just as artificial intelligence is making its way into other industries Mr Everitt said a second motion related to seeking clarification about how AI and digital imaging might be used in the future to assess grain at receival sites.

“We need to make sure growers are not disadvantaged by these advances in technology,” he said.

The third motion was linked to the trademark names for some of the grain varieties. For instance, growers wanted names, for example, ASW1, which relates to a wheat grade, to continue for all users and traders.

They did not want to see these names potentially trademarked and perhaps limited in their use.

Mr Everitt said the conference attracted more attendees than he had seen in recent years and was a positive platform to discuss the matters affecting agriculture.

He said that, in general, renewable energy options and electronic identification (eID) for sheep and goats were popular topics on the agenda.