Mr Warburton, who runs a 3000 hectare mixed sheep and cropping business, is one of five growers sponsored by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in this year's Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship Program.

He is partway through an international personal study tour and has completed a six week Global Focus program with other Nuffield Scholars from around the world.

Mr Warburton has toured the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico and Brazil, and will visit Argentina, Uruguay and the United States again in coming months.

He is investigating how grazing and long season wheats can be profitably integrated into livestock systems, and is also looking at genomics including getting the best genetics into every flock or herd faster.

Having seen an enormous diversity of wheats during his travels, Mr Warburton believes Australian growers could benefit if there were wheat varieties available which could not only be grazed but harvested earlier in the season.

"I think there are opportunities to breed new wheat varieties, suited to Australian conditions, which produce a lot of vegetation early and then rapidly get to the flowering stage by mid-August or September," Mr Warburton said.

"The risk of frost damage needs to be considered, but earlier flowering varieties would allow the wheat to flower during milder temperatures, reducing heat stress on the plant.

"There is a real fit for those types of wheat at home, especially if we get early winter rain and the chance to seed them early and graze them."

Mr Warburton said the scholarship had strengthened his resolve to continue looking for new ways of maintaining paddock cover throughout the year by integrating pastures and crops.

"I am looking for new methods of continuing to grow something on the ground all the time," he said.

"Changes we have already made with perennials and grazing systems on our farm have also had the unintended consequence of improving our soils.

"My travels have reinforced the importance of soils and I want to bring some of the ideas I have seen back home, and improve on what we are doing."

Mr Warburton said other changes he would implement as a result of his GRDC sponsored travels include an increased emphasis on inputs, management and documentation.

He said growers in the United Kingdom, although assisted by subsidies, farm intensively and very well.

"Their management is precise and, unlike in Australia, they don't skimp on anything," Mr Warburton said.

"Their crops are remarkably clean, the agronomy is very good and their documentation is excellent."

His travels in Brazil have led him to believe that country would become the world's biggest agricultural producer in coming years.

"Brazil invests heavily in agricultural research and uses very sustainable farming methods," Mr Warburton said.

Image: GRDC sponsored Nuffield scholar Rob Warburton in a no-till wheat trial at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico.