Western Australian growers with multiple soil constraints can check which one is costing them the most. The WA tool, Ranking Options for Soil Amelioration (ROSA), assesses which soil management options will give the biggest return on investment. WA croppers lose $4.3 billion each year from soil constraints. Most losses are […]
Please register for a webinar on the Better Fertiliser Decisions for Cropping database and have your say on its future. – Nov 15, 2018 2:00 PM AEDT The Better Fertiliser Decisions in Cropping (BFDC) database and data interrogator has been developed over the last 7 years with training and support […]
Chicken manure is helping to ameliorate sandy soils on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. Trial results over three years indicate that high-rate surface applications combined with deep ripping are delivering the highest marginal returns. Positive results The marginal returns from applying chicken litter (or a comparable, inorganic fertiliser), and deep ripping, […]
There are a variety of free and paid support tools to help make crop nutrition decisions. Please note this is not a complete list. Check out Climate Kelpie for more decision support tools. Free Tools SoilMapp collates data from national soil databases (ASRIS and ApSoil). View maps, photos and satellite […]
Late winter and early spring is the best time to check legume nodules. To fix nitrogen, legumes need the symbiotic soil bacteria rhizobia in their root nodules. Legumes without effective nodules will deplete soil N and can perform poorly. Lack of rhizobia causes poor nodulation. Rhizobia come from the soil […]
Legume break crops can provide significant fixed nitrogen (N) for subsequent cereal crops. From 2013 – 2015, Michael Moodie (Mallee Sustainable Farming) compared various legume crop productivity and N contribution in low rainfall environments. Trials were conducted in the Victorian and South Australian Mallee regions, where N is often limiting. […]
Many growers and advisers in eastern Australia are weighing up the options for their drought-stressed and frost-damaged crops. Is it more economical to conserve crops as hay or silage, graze them or hope to eventually harvest them? Has the generally high cost of hay cutting been fully taken into account? […]
Concentrating stubble into windrowed strips affects subsequent crop production, soil testing and fertiliser decisions. Wayne Pluske (Equii), Ryan Walker ( Apal Laboratories) and John Young (Wyening Mission Farm) looked at nutrient redistribution post-harvest. They measured plant material (dry matter as t/ha) and nutrient content of canola and wheat crops. The […]
A review of the Better Fertiliser Decisions for Cropping Systems in Australia database is set to commence with a series of industry consultative meetings over the next three months. The BFDC database contains yield response curves for many crops, nutrient applications and soil types across grain growing regions and has been […]
Growers in some lucky regions are now considering late, in-crop applications of nitrogen. Crops in Western Australia, south-west Victoria, and parts of Tasmania still have above average yield potential. Given current grain prices, the economic reward from late N application to these crops is likely to be high. But late […]
