EVENT: Mushroom Farm Hygiene Mini Series

Facilitators - Warwick Gill & Judy Allan

EVENT DETAILS:
A Miniseries consisting of four 1.5 hr sessions will be delivered remotely on consecutive Thursday afternoons commencing Thursday 16th May. The Miniseries is being organised as part of MU22010 Mushroom International Study Tours - inbound and outbound and is being designed and delivered by the team of Warwick Gill and Judy Allan highlighting resources developed in MU21007 Pest and Disease Management for the Australian mushroom Industry. A follow-up remote event utilising an overseas speaker who specialises in farm hygiene audits and training is currently being developed as part of this initiative.

AMGA will be hosting the Miniseries and the sessions will be recorded and eventually reside in Agora the Pest and Disease website.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The Mushroom Farm Hygiene Miniseries will be a review to experienced and less experienced key farm staff and a chance for self -review what they know and don’t know, plus it will build on existing knowledge about managing farm hygiene. It will provide an opportunity for people to learn more about what happens in the whole mushroom growing process not just in the stage of the production process where they work.

The Target audience is key farm staff who have worked in the industry at least 3 months, it is not targeted to new entrants with no experience on a mushroom farm. Less experienced participants can attend but will be expected to have at minimum watched the new Farm Hygiene and Integrated Pest Management Voice- Over- Power -point (VOP) videos currently being prepared. These VOP videos will be released progressively in advance of the miniseries and links to relevant pre-existing videos and relevant resources will also be distributed during the delivery period. This is in recognition that the scope of Farm Hygiene is far more that what can be covered in the four short remote sessions of the Miniseries.

TRAINER PROFILES
Warwick Gill graduated from the University of Canterbury specialising in the mushroom disease ‘Drippy Gill’ and undertook postgraduate study of mushroom diseases at the Tottori Mycological Institute as a recipient if a JIST Fellowship, followed by a BRAIN research fellowship at the University of Tokyo studying mushroom cultivation techniques.

In 2000, Warwick was awarded a DIST research fellowship sponsored by Huon Valley Mushrooms in Tasmania to study mushroom cultivation techniques at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania and moved on to the farm at project completion to fulfill roles as head exotic grower, spawn maker and farm manager.

In 2013 he joined Judy on the delivery team for MU12007 (development of a pilot mushroom farm disease monitoring scheme) in which they developed novel and rapid sampling techniques for large porous surfaces such as grow room floors and took the lead in MU16003 Pest and Disease management and Research Services with Judy, and has again taken the lead delivering current project MU21007 Pest and Disease Management for the Australian Mushroom Industry.

Judy Allan has been involved in the mushroom industry since 1982, initially as a government advisor with the NSW Department of Agriculture and then as a private consultant. As a specialist in pest and disease management and industry risk mitigation, she has performed roles as project manager and/or team member on funded projects including: MU13014 (implementing industry risk management), MU11003 (editorial consultant to the AMGA Journal), MU12001 (mushroom industry knowledge training), MU12007 (development of a pilot mushroom farm disease monitoring scheme), MU16003 & MU21007 (pest and disease management and research services). Judy has served on numerous industry committees and has extensive experience in delivering industry training at farm and whole industry level and was awarded Life Honorary Membership of the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association in 2003 in recognition of her services to the industry.

In MU21007 Judy utilises her mushroom-specific technical background and in-depth knowledge of the industry to be predominantly responsible for grower liaison and awareness raising as well as working with Warwick on resource development.