Viticulture consultant Jenny Venus might be considered a Langhorne Creek local – she’s been working in the region since 1999. But Jenny is originally from Queensland and her working life began in horticulture with SARDI as an apricot breeder.
“I worked in apricot breeding and research, before moving into a vine scout role for IAMA in the Langhorne Creek area 25 years ago and I’ve stayed in Langhorne Creek ever since. I now work for Brad Case Contracting managing vineyards,” Jenny said.
No two days are the same for Jenny who works with large and small growers on their vineyard management and pest and disease monitoring.
“It’s a lovely mix of people, paddocks and challenges. There are always things happening and, at the moment, the industry challenges for growers are huge,” Jenny said.
“The Langhorne Creek region is an ideal base for me as it’s central to McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills and Barossa and it’s also close to Adelaide which enables me to work with the University of Adelaide and SARDI, when there’s opportunity to link in with research, trials and projects.”
One of Jenny’s current research collaborations with SARDI and Wine Australia is a project focused on scale populations in Australian vineyards.
“Scale has been an issue across many regions for many years. We need to understand what’s driving the increase in scale insects,” Jenny said.
“I’ve been lobbying for years to get funding to do some ground research, to see what’s out there and understand why it’s there. It’s great to finally have a scale survey project up and running and I’m working with SARDI researchers now to examine the survey results. We need to understand how to manage scale populations more effectively.”
Jenny said another key focus for Brad Case Contracting and vineyard owners in South Australia was preventing the spread of weed seeds.
“When travelling between regions, I’m very aware of not moving weed seeds from one property to another,” Jenny said.
“As I leave one property, I check my boots and supplies to ensure they are clear of weed seeds and that floor mats are emptied out on the property as I leave it. You want to respect a grower’s property and not bring anything foreign onto that land.”
Jenny said most vineyard owners she works with have a good understanding of biosecurity and farm-gate hygiene.
“If we’re bringing a harvester onto a vineyard, the vineyard owner wants to know it’s clean. Most have wash down bays for us to use before we leave their property,” she said,
“There are a few growers who don’t offer wash down bays, which makes it challenging. Then we have to find the nearest one, which is usually a neighbour’s property who they have an arrangement with.
“I think growers are aware of who’s coming onto their vineyards, and they want to know that machinery and equipment is clean.”
Jenny said visitor log in systems including apps and text messaging were reasonably common, particularly in larger grape growing operations. “These systems ask where you have been, have you come from interstate, is your vehicle clean, and so on,” she said.
“Because I work for a vineyard contractor, washing equipment as it leaves the property so that it goes to the next property clean is standard practice.
“Here in South Australia, we’re probably not as diligent with strict quarantine procedures as the phylloxera infested regions interstate because we don’t have that immediate pest pressure. But we do the basics, and we do them well.”
In a previous role, Jenny regularly travelled to vineyards in Heathcote, and she was careful with clothing and footwear between Victoria and South Australia.
“I had separate clothes that I left at the Victorian office. I had boots, and a whole set of clothes that never came to South Australia. I left them all there because the thought of bringing phylloxera back to South Australia was horrific,” Jenny said.
“Most wine industry people are aware of the phylloxera infested regions and are careful about their clothing and shoes, including changing their clothing and boots, or using a chlorine footbath and standing in it for 60 seconds.”
On top of her day-to-day consulting work and industry projects, Jenny is also on the Board of Australian Grape and Wine and the Wine Grape Council of SA. She’s also involved with Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine Association and was awarded the Viticulturist of the Year Award for Langhorne Creek in 2021.
“I also do a fair bit of collaborative work locally around improving soil health and growers’ knowledge on soil, looking at new chemistries,” Jenny said.
“We try to keep growers abreast of what’s new and try to get products out to properties so that we can observe what that new chemistry looks like and how well it’s working in practice.
“I keep up to speed with what’s happening in the industry so that I can be of the most assistance to growers. This year we’ve had frost and then we’ve had heat and humidity, so it’s been a challenging season for vine health.”
Jenny said another pressure for vineyard owners was the growing number of mothballed vineyards.
“There are quite a few rested or mothballed vineyards around regions and those vineyards aren’t necessarily being sprayed, so disease levels are higher,” Jenny said.
“We keep a close eye on neighbouring blocks and sometimes we’re changing what we’re doing with our spray program close to those blocks and on boundary lines.”
Another project that Jenny is involved with is SARDI’s fungicide resistance project, funded by Wine Australia.
“We’re looking at what our levels of fungicide resistance are within the regions I cover. We’re looking at some of those mothball blocks to take samples to see what’s happening in those blocks compared to what’s happening in neighbouring blocks,” Jenny said.
“I see an important part of my role as staying in contact with researchers and trying to help them make their research relevant to what’s happening in regions.
“We need ongoing and long-term research, but we also need practical research that’s going to positively impact vineyards and reasonably quickly – research that’s going to make a difference for our industry and help growers remain viable.”
