Join us at the Dandaragan Hall for the latest agribusiness information, prominent speakers and trial results relevant to our region from across the cropping and livestock sectors.
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.
The West Midlands Group (WMG) and Gallagher have recently pledged to work together to support the pastoral beef industry through the BEEFLINKS backgrounding project. The WMG led project will focus on the collection of animal performance data that can be used by backgrounders and pastoralists to increase the productivity and efficiency of their operations. WMG executive officer Dr Nathan Craig said the involvement of Gallagher will complement the project as its core is based on collecting accurate animal production data.
Tailored to each region information presented will include grower experiences, economic examples of applications, data layers to identify and manage variability as well as look at software/cloud-based programs and tips and tricks for success.
Workshops will provide a brief introduction into precision agriculture so each participant can develop a PA implementation plan.
Please bring your laptop and printed out farm map with aerial photo background for personalised discussions and results. Second workshop will follow with topics based upon participants feedback.
Join the WMG on Wednesday, 21 September for our annual Spring Field Day! This year's event will showcase applied research and bring researchers, agronomists, livestock experts and industry leaders to the region to exchange knowledge with the local farming community. See all the latest in crop agronomy, livestock management, NVT’s and more at this year's event in Badgingarra at the Scotney family's farm, "Warialda".
The limitation of centre pivot irrigation systems currently is that water can only be irrigated as a blanket application across the whole site, or be limited into ‘pizza slice’ sub-sections of the paddock. This creates severe restrictions in being able to apply water to meet the specific needs of each soil type, and often results in some soil types being over-watered or under-watered depending on the location on the site. The over-watering of soil types can result in the leaching of unused water and nutrients down the soil profile and can potentially cause off-site impacts of nutrient enrichment. The aim of this project was to better understand the movement of water in the soil profile for three distinct soil types in the West Midlands region and assess the potential for the leaching of nutrients and water below the rooting depth of potatoes. This could then guide the implementation of variable rate irrigation in the region, where irrigation can be varied across the landscape to match water applied to soil water holding capacity.
An increasing trend is for pastoral properties to send lighter animals to the southern region to be ‘backgrounded’, or grown out, to heavier weights to enable access to the live export trade or entry into feedlots for future abattoir supply. However, the success of this approach revolves around reducing the amount of weight that is lost in the transition phase during transport from station and settling into the backgrounding property. The aim of this project was to quantify weight gain/loss in backgrounding systems for the first two months following induction in the West Midlands region.
Data was collected on cattle that were transported to the backgrounding region in 2018 and 2019 from multiple properties within the Pilbara and Northern Rangelands regions of WA, with the backgrounding properties located near Badgingarra in the West Midlands region. The cattle in this study were transitioned in the May to October period of each year and individual animal performance data was collected to monitor weight gain from induction at the backgrounding property for a period of approximately 2 months.
Matching pasture production and livestock requirements can dramatically improve animal production while reducing the cost of supplementary feeding. The aim of this trial was to evaluate a range of pasture mixes that have the potential to fill niche pasture production windows in the West Midlands region. This pasture demonstration site was located at the 2019 Spring Field Day site near Dandaragan on a sandy loam soil type. The site was established on the 5th May using a plot seeder to dry seed 12 pasture mixes, with a volunteer pasture adjacent to the site as comparison. Up to three pasture cuts were taken from each plot during the season to assess pasture production. The site was mowed in August to simulate grazing, and NKS21 fertiliser was broadcast to each treatment.