'A great man of Australian agriculture': Roger Southwood's outstanding contributions

Roger passed away in May this year, aged 92.

He was a NSW Department of Primary Industries research agronomist and leader, from the 1960s, at Temora and then Wagga Wagga.

For the last decade of his DPI days, he was Dubbo-based western director.

Many research and extension programs were initiated and led by Roger, with perhaps the most notable being his drive to ensure farmers and agronomists understood the ramifications of soil acidity and how to best address this massive issue.

Up until the 1970s, most of us did not appreciate the potential problem that slowly increasing soil acidity posed - especially on soils that in their natural state were to a degree acidic.

Roger stressed the need for urgent research and extension to address soil acidity.

Commonly when a new complex issue is raised, especially if big dollars are involved, there is a tendency to avoid facing the problem.

Roger was not one to let complacency rule and hence, largely via his efforts, followed a major acidity research and extension program that successfully addressed it in its many facets.

I was fortunate to commence my career as an agronomist working with Roger at Temora.

One of his projects back in 1966 - he had a large range of trials going on at any given time - was evaluating tropical grasses.

His head office agronomy leaders of that era considered these trials inappropriate and told him to plough them out.

However, years later this research, under Roger's encouragement, in the central and north west led to a major shift in pasture type for thousands of farmers.

Roger's Temora dual purpose winter crop research pioneered use of nitrogen in these crops and steered sowing rates for slopes and plains environments to increase seeding rates from the then norm of 40 kilograms per hectare to 60 kg/ha.

Professor Frank Crofts, Sydney University, had established that 90 kg/ha was best for the tablelands. Both these findings remain largely relevant today.

Pasture variety improvement was a major area of his research.

Up to the late 1960s, sub clover had largely failed to persist in western areas.

Roger identified early maturing hard seeded varieties, initially Geraldton followed later by Nungarin and Dalkeith, that performed and persisted in these lower rainfall areas.

He also first showed newer Phalaris varieties - Sirosa and Sirocco - developed by Rex Oram, CSIRO, could persist if carefully managed in environments like Temora.

A lot of pasture nutrition and management research was undertaken in the 1960s-1980s.

Roger was in the thick of these studies and led and/or advised on many of them.

Phosphorus and sulphur, and sometimes trace elements were main deficiencies.

Research in following years showed similar deficiencies in central and northern NSW.

Grazing management studies showed that for species like sub clover, rotational gazing was not critical for production but maintenance of groundcover was important.

Roger's leadership as regional director was outstanding.

As retired Dubbo district agronomist Col Mullen put it.

"His support for his officers was exceptional, as was his support for our research and extension programs," Mr Mullen said of Roger.

"His agronomy background gave him a greater insight and understanding of our work".

Typical of this support was the role he played in the release of several new pasture varieties.

For example, the release of Avila and Elgara serradella - both vastly superior to the then main variety Pitman.

Also, the Dalkeith sub clover release was influenced by Roger's Australia-wide respect and knowledge of how to get "things done".

Roger's influence extended across all farming aspects.

He played a pivotal role in research seeking improved farming systems that led to change from cereals only to rotations including canola and pulses.

He received the NSW Public Service Award in 1991 - a rare honour.

Like many outstanding Australians he was also involved in many community activities other than his work. A great man of Australian agriculture.

Next week: Essential for chickpea disease control program.