 Good morning. We'll make a start I think. We'll have plenty of time for networking and catching up, so promise we'll do that later on. Good morning and welcome to the Ag Tech Field Day. My name is Matt Stevens from ABC Riverland and I'll be your MC for today. Let's begin the day by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather today and pay respects to their elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today as well. We have a very tight schedule to get through today and it's not all about sitting here and listening to people talk, even though that's going to be very interesting. I don't begrudge that at all, but there is a lot of interaction going on as well, so we'll be up and moving around too. To start the day, I would like to introduce the member for Chaffee, Tim Wettstone. No doubt most of you, or if not all of you, would have at some stage over the past 11 years while he's been elected member seen at Tim before Mr Wettstone was elected as member for Chaffee. He grew wine grapes and citrus of properties in Renmark and near Overland Corner. During this time he was Director of the Renmark Irrigation Trust and also Chairman of the South Australian Murray Irrigators. Among other things, as the member for Chaffee, Mr Wettstone, has played a leading role in his community's response to water reform in the Murray-Darling Basin and continues to advocate for a fair and balanced outcome for the Murray and for river communities which rely on it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Tim Wettstone. Thank you Matt. Welcome everybody. Great to have you here and obviously everyone's here for a very good reason and that is that we're having our Ag Tech Expo today. Presents opportunities but more importantly it presents a conversation around the room and for many of you that are progressive farmers or progressive people within your industry and it's really important that that conversation continues and that's why myself as the local member but also former Minister for Primary Industries I saw that huge opportunity as a grower, as a representative community person, the opportunities came far and plenty. Here at Lockston I guess this institution is no stranger to some of the pioneers within Ag Tech. There are many here. Modern day people in this room, I won't mention all of you but the four Peters always come to mind. Peter Glash, Peter McGarry, Peter Busse and Peter Weir. Those four gentlemen were instrumental in some of the Ag Tech that we commonly use today but I think what we will see for the future. The extension of what they brought to not only this region but what they brought to modernising telemetry, modernising agriculture I think should not be understated. The opportunities that I saw coming into a government that I passionate about the Ag sector but also more passionate about how do we advance, how do we actually make the Ag sector a better place not only in doing what we do, growing food, being more efficient, we've led water reform over many decades but how do we lead our space using less water with more product, growing better product, I guess pandering to the expectation of the world's needs and want for clean, safe food. I guess monitoring it on farm has been something that I've witnessed over my time as a grower but now just as importantly, as a state member I look at opportunities and I look around the room here and there are pioneers here that work on their properties every day but more importantly they talk to their neighbour, they talk to industry groups and they bring collective interest I guess to the table and a huge amount of opportunity not only setting up the Ag Tech advisory group and announcing the Ag Tech strategic plan, the government's agenda has to be continued and today is about continuing that conversation and I guess along the way having those conversations is critically important and it's underpinned by the Lockston Research Centre and other research centres around the state having an open door policy and that's something I saw very clearly in some of my study trips into the US, Israel and elsewhere was about governments not only providing an institution but leaving the door open so that business could come in, so that growers could come in, they could have that conversation but they could also provide extension to what was going on and I saw for far too long these research centres closed door policy, everything was done in some level of secrecy and I thought that had to stop and so what we've seen is a partnership, a public-private partnership and if we look down at Struwan, Coby Bylight, we look here at Lockston and other facilities that are in the winds of opening up their doors, that private-public partnership now gives extension to I guess a readily available level of funding, expertise but more importantly it's having people like yourselves as growers, as leaders, being able to go into an institution, ask questions, look for some support, wanting some trials done whether it's here at the research centre or whether it's done on farm, this is what Ag Tech is all about, it's about sharing knowledge and it's about progressing what this region is about it's underpinned by agriculture through production and it's underpinned by efficiency gains and that's why many of you are here today to learn about what is the next step what is a piece of advantage I can use within my farm, sadly we've seen some storms through the area over recent days so whoever can develop some of that technology to combat some of those storms or separate the skies or the dark clouds, you know, you're going to make some money but we have seen one of the great insurance policies that is now making itself very visible and that is protected cropping under shade it's coming with some complexity, it's coming with cost, but it is coming to give a level of assurance and a level of protection into some of our cropping sectors so I think today I hope that the conversation continues, I really do hope that people will gain benefit out of every conversation, anything that we hear and see today the minister David Basham will be up later on today, he's going to visit the region and have a look at some of the storm damage and I think he's also going to call past here at some point in the afternoon so we'll look forward to that but I think more importantly, it's really, again, everything's important when it comes to Ag Tech but it's important that all of you have that conversation, look, learn, share knowledge and sharing knowledge is an absolute goal when it comes to our businesses progressing and becoming better, bigger and stronger and more resilient so enjoy the day and I look forward to those conversations