The purpose of the canola NVT trials at Dandaragan is to provide growers and their advisors with independent information on the performance of newly released varieties of canola relative to the current commercial varieties grown in the area. The intention is to have two years of data available on the NVT website at the time each new variety is made available for commercial production. The 2016 trial was located in Dandaragan on brown grey sand to yellow brown sand at depth.
Managing wheat nutrient inputs for both yield and protein is an ongoing challenge with seasonal rainfall variability, management practices and other factors continually increasing yield potential. Traditional approaches to N management may be leaving crops short – evidenced by disappointing grain protein levels in recent seasons. Growers may be forgoing profit by playing the season late and not addressing crop demand early when yield potential is critically set.
Summit Fertilizers compared a number of strategies to increase nitrogen application rates to match site conditions for yield potential. Applying various N rates at multiple combinations of timing splits provides a range of contrasts to assess impact on yield, grain quality and profitability.
The use of two break crops in a row as a double break crop sequence has been successfully used to increase the grain yield of successive wheat crops in South Eastern Australia, and this study has tested this approach in the WA wheatbelt region.
Four demonstration sites were established in 2017 near Bencubbin, Corrigin, Miling, and Calingiri. These sites were established in paddocks with a history of root diseases or weed populations that a single break crop could not address, and which were sown to a break crop, pasture, or fallow in 2016. In 2017, a range of break crop options were grown on small plots and with the remaining paddock area sown to canola or wheat. All sites were sown to wheat in 2018.
Effective nodulation of legumes is important to maximise the amount of nitrogen fixed by the legume; however, lupins are not usually treated with inoculant due to the presence of native inoculant in the soil. It is unclear if this native inoculant is as effective as newer types of inoculant, and the objective of this project is to evaluate TagTeam on the nodulation and grain yield of lupin and chickpea on a sandplain soil. At this trial there was no yield benefit in applying an inoculant on lupin seed. Although there was a noticeable improvement in crop establishment and nodulation when doing so (from a 2.9 rating to a 3.9 nodulation rating), it did not translate to yield. It is possible that this is because the frequency of lupins grown in this environment has been high, and therefore enough numbers of rhizobia are present in the soil to achieve suitable nodulation. The dry finish to the season may have also influenced the final yield.
The aim of the National Variety Trial (NVT) program is to generate independent information for growers and industry about newly released varieties of winter field crops relative to the current commercial varieties grown in the area. The data generated can be compared by year/s, location and variety, providing an important decision support tool for growers when assessing if they are growing the right varieties for their farm business. This trial was sown onto a high yielding, burnt barley stubble on the 24th May.
The soil type was a high quality dark Dandaragan sand/loam. Unlike many areas of the state in 2019 this site had reasonable subsoil moisture from some earlier localised rain so germinated and grew exceptionally well. The late start to the season and dry spring tended to suit the quicker varieties, however good yields were returned by all varieties in the trial.
Legumes can provide value to the crop rotation through the fixation of nitrogen, and there is the need to evaluate a wider range of legumes that could be grown in WA. Nine demonstration sites were established across the wheatbelt region as part of a GRDC project led by Liebe Group. In 2018, demonstration strips of field pea, lupin, lentil, and chickpea were grown and then followed by Scepter wheat in the 2019 season.
The West Midlands Group demonstration site was located at ‘Kayanaba’, 1 km east of Dandaragan on a clay loam soil type. The site was sown and harvested by the grower and managed similar to the remaining area of the paddock. The Gross Margin was calculated for 2018 by Farmanco as part of the overall project, while Gross Margin was calculated in 2019 based on grower supplied data, and including machinery costs at contract rates.
Early rains have brought about the establishment of Brassica plants (pictured), such as radish and canola, which are common hosts of Diamondback Moth (DBm).
West Midlands Group mixed farming systems officer, Brianna Hindle, recently spent a few days driving around the countryside identifying areas that may be prone to Diamondback moth (DBm).
Brianna placed 40 traps between Eneabba, Coorow, Calingiri, Lancelin, Jurien Bay to begin monitoring the presence of this crop-destroying insect.
Plants were identified along the roadside, then the trap was setup at the and placed. The Brassica was visually inspected for any signs of DBm larvae.
A sample of plant was taken from all sites, with each trap site located between 20 to 30km apart.
Sites were marked on the MyPestGuide Reporter app, along with photos taken of the site and Brassica plants present.
While there was evidence of DBm activity on many plants in the form of leaf damage, Brianna discovered no larvae at any sites.
The traps will be collected in a month, and samples of DBm presence on the traps will be sent to DPIRD for analysis.
This trial aimed to evaluate early foliar disease suppression of soil applied fungicides, compare early soil disease control to a foliar only strategy, compare efficacy of different foliar fungicides on yield at a ~Z31 and Z39 applications as well as comparative of seed treatments.
This project investigates the use of double break crops to increase the yield of subsequent wheat crops in the Kwinana East and West port zones of the WA grain growing region through the use of field experimentation.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of paired and single seeding configurations on the timely emergence of crops. While the use of paired row seeding configurations has been popular and well adopted among growers in recent years, there is little independent data to quantify the benefit of paired row seeding configurations on the timely emergence of crops over a range of seeding depths and soil types.
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