John Gidley & Co Bringing a world of seed and choice to your seed business International and Domestic Seed Brokers PO Box 29 Briar Hill Vic 3088 Australia Tel + 61 3 9434 5669 Fax + 61 3 9434 5693 Email : john@johngidley.com.au Skype : johngidley.seedbroker

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CONFERENCES Each year we generally attend ASF and ISF conferences ASF (Australian Seed Federation) 1992 Broome, Western Australia 1993 Airport Sheraton Sydney New South Wales 1994 Lorne, Victoria 1995 Airport Sheraton, Sydney New South Wales 1996 Broadbeach Queensland 1997 Brisbane Hilton, Brisbane Queensland – Joint conference with APSA 1998 Brighton Beach, Sydney New South Wales 1999 Hilton East Melbourne, Victoria 2000 Adelaide South Australia 2001 Canberra Australia Capital Territory 2002 Sheraton Perth, Western Australia 2003 Crown Plaza, Coogee Beach Sydney New South Wales 2004 Broadbeach Queensland 2005 Eden on the Park, Melbourne, Victoria 2006 Glenelg South Australia 2007 Sheraton Perth, Western Australia 2008 Hobart, Tasmania 2009 Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australian Agriculture NACMA Normally held late Jul each year in Melbourne 2008 Hilton East Melbourne 2009 Crown Casino Melbourne : Jul 27-29 CICILS 2003 Crown Casino, Melbourne Australia 2009 Antalaya Turkey : Apr 17-20 2009 ISF (International Seed Federation) 1999 Melbourne, Australia 2000 Rome, Italy 2001 Sun City, Sth Africa 2002 Chicago USA 2003 Bangalore, India 2004 Berlin, Germany 2005 Santiago, Chile 2006 Copenhagen, Denmark 2007 Christchurch New Zealand Table 51 2008 Prague, Czech Republic Table 103 2009 Antalaya, Turkey : May 25 to 27 2009 Table 7 2010 Calgary, Alberta Canada 2011 Belfast, Ireland 2012 Korea NZGSTA (NZ Grain & Seed Trade Association) Generally held each year 3^rd week Nov 2008 Wanaka in the beautiful South Island NZ Nov 27 2008 Approx 25 ASF seedsmen and women from the Southern and SE regions met in Warrnambool Victoria approx 300km west of Melbourne for a combined meeting with ASF CEO Will Golsby. Chaired by SE Region chairman Bruce Officer supported by SE secretary Phil Badgery members later adjourned to Images Restaurant for dinner, drinks and fellowship. On the Victorian side the country is looking very good between Warrnambool & Colac. Having said that Sep and Oct have been very dry (the driest on record in many areas Victoria) and Colac has only had perhaps 50% of its normal annual rainfall. The water level in Lake Colac a vast inland lake just north of the town is extremely low. But doing better than Lake Wendouree in Ballarat which is completely dry and the lakes in Mallee towns Hopetoun, Jeparit and Rainbow which have been dry for about the past 3 years. Townsfolk in Jeparit were last reported as lining up to shower at the local caravan park as the local council trucked in water for showering. Locals in these towns are waiting on the new 12” pipeline to be commissioned. Meantime reports reached us this week from our Cyprus agent that Cyprus is bringing in drinking water from Greece by the shipload due to low rainfall. Urugauy and Argentine are also experiencing bad droughts. Dec 12 2008 South east Australia (Victoria/Sth Australia/Sth New South Wales) continues to receive unseasonal December rain following good November rains. As we write this seedgrowers are trying to get the annual and perennial ryegrass crops in. Xmas 2008 Our office will close close of business Dec 24 2008, re-opening Monday Jan 5 2009. As usual with different time zones if anything needs mopping up Xmas Day or in the break we can take care of this. All the very best to everyone for the festive season! Jan 7 2009 Happy New Year! Hi ho it’s back to work we go…a new year and new vigour. We’ve registered for ISF Antalya, Turkey May 25-27 2009. Staying at the main conference hotel and meeting at Table 7. Jan 29 2009 our 3^rd hottest day in 138 years in Melbourne today with the temperature reaching 112 deg F this afternoon. Around 44 deg C. We have about a week of this weather forecast which should see a lot of annual ryegrass and perennial ryegrass in farmers paddocks here die and burn off. The highest on record here 45.6 degrees back in 1939 on Black Friday Jan 13 1939 when a combination of very high temperatures and high winds saw half of country Victoria on fire. MELBOURNE is officially in its hottest-known three-day heatwave, after the temperature again broke through the 43 degrees celsius barrier today. Today's temperature of 43.8 degrees recorded at 1.52pm (AEDT) marked the first time since records began in 1855 that the city has had three consecutive days above 43. On Wednesday the temperature reached 43.4 degrees and yesterday it got to 44.3 degrees. Melbourne is also experiencing its driest period since 1965 with 27 days without rain, and none is forecast in the immediate future.The city's record dry spell occurred in 1955 when the city had 40 days without rain, the bureau said. Economics - today NZ cut their cash rate by 1.5% down to 3.5%. Australia’s cash rate is currently 4.25% with the Reserve Bank Australia (RBA) due to meet next week. Pundits tip an decrease of 0.75 to 1.0% by the RBA when they next meet next week. Feb 7 2009 known as “Black Saturday” in Victoria small grasses fires started in the Kilmore area and fanned by strong easterly winds spread like wildfire drove the fire east through Kinglake West, Flowerdale, Kinglake, Strathewan early afternoon on what is now recorded as the hottest day in Victoria’s history. In Melbourne @ 3pm the temperate was in excess of 46 deg celcius or around 118 deg Fahrenheit. Later on in the same day another fire started or was started in the Murrinidindi/Taggerty area and around 4.30 or 5.00pm this fire engulfed the beautiful mountain village of Marysville. In all locations there was a huge amount of property damage, approx 500,000ha burnt, nearly 2000 homes destroyed and the tragic loss of nearly 200 lives. Mar 2009 has seen cooler weather in Victoria and some rain. While Nth Qld has been under flood, SE Qld is very dry. In the last week Mar, 1^st week of Apr heavy rain on the mid North Coast NSW has caused further flooding in that area. ISF Antalya Turkey May 25 to 27 2009… thanks to our hosts for a great conference at the Lara Kervansky Hotel @ Lara just out of Antalya Turkey. Great weather, beachside location, friendly hospitality and the all included nature of Turkish hotels combined to give this years conference a very relaxed and summery feel. Very well attended, it was a pleasure to meet clients, colleagues, friends in the seed business from all over the world. So with some sadness we say farewell Turkey, bring on Alberta Canada 2010! Jan 13 2010 while Europe, England, NW USA are having freezing weather, lots of ice and snow, it’s summer here in Australia. Mon night Jan 11 Melbourne had it’s hottest night on record since 1902 with a min overnight temp 30.6C or about 88F. This hot weather follows an extremely hot period in early Nov 2009 when Sth Australia and Victoria had days and days of 40C+ weather in a row. Newcrop seed harvested is currently being cleaned. Yields on some crops are back, purity and germ results are still to come. To all our friends and colleagues here and overseas…. all the best for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010!