During late February and early March 2019, the GRDC Grains Research Updates for the northern region were held in Warra, Moonie and Goondiwindi in Queensland, and Spring Plains, Coolah, Dubbo, Corowa and Wagga in New South Wales. 

A number of the presentations at the Northern Updates focussed on the new technologies available to help manage soils and crop nutrition. These presentations included:

• A review of the state-of-the-art in agricultural automation – Part 4: Sensor-based nitrogen management technologies.
• Infield spectrometer and NIR on your phone.
• Using EM38 at the crop lower limit to identify subsoil constraints for site-specific management.  

Presentations discussing sub-soil constraints and nutrient placement included:

• Subsoil constraints the many challenges of sodium, chloride and salinity, and what you can do about them.    
• Deep P update 2019: Multi year grain yield impacts and economic returns for southern Queensland cropping.  

There were also a number of presentations discussing crop nutrition under various farming systems, and improving soil health using natural additives. These included:

• Grazing cereal and canola crop nutrition.    
• The impact different farming systems have on soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.    
• Effects of surface incorporation of organic matter (lucerne pellets) on sub-surface soil acidity and wheat growth.   
• Fixing more N-improving the performance of rhizobial inoculants in sub-optimal conditions.