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.
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.
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.
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 with a difference of 0.9 t/ha between the highest and lowest yielding varieties.
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.
Chickpea and lentil offer a lot of potential across WA as alternate break crops to the more common options of canola and lupin. In addition to providing good gross margins, incorporating high-value pulses into rotation can improve soil nitrogen and provide a disease break for cereal crops. Over the past 20 years use of these crops has declined substantially in WA, however, recent good prices and newer cultivars with improved resistance to ascochyta blight and/or with herbicide resistance has renewed interest in these crops. The increasing occurrence of liming as part of farming practice has also broadened the potential growing area in WA for these acid intolerant crops. Agronomic packages for these newer varieties are still being developed within WA. This CSIRO project focussed on the impact time and depth of sowing in lentil and chickpea have on plant emergence and establishment as well as yield in the low to medium rainfall areas.
Trials for sowing date and depth of pulses were sown at Merredin and Dandaragan in April and May. Trials were fully replicated (n = 4) with split plot designs.
While the use of single row seeding boots has been popular and well understood among growers, it is unclear what impact paired row seeding has on the timely emergence of crops over a range of soil types and seasons. The aim of this study was to evaluate the emergence of crops using paired and single row seeding across the main soil types in the West Midlands region. This is a two-year project (2018-19) and the results are presented for the 2019 season. A later break to the 2019 season occurred on the 7th June with an average of 19 mm across all sites, with all sites being dry sown prior to this date to either wheat, barley, or lupin.
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.