New RiskWi$e N Banking & Long-Term Soil CRC Trial Sites Seeded

By Simon Kruger & Kate Parker, WMG

The West Midlands Group has kicked off two important trial sites for the 2025 season, both seeded in late May by Kaylx field team members Yaseen and Cleber. These sites are part of ongoing, long-term research into improving nitrogen use efficiency and building drought resilience in local farming systems.

Nitrogen Banking on Deep Sands – Velyere, Dandaragan

The first site is hosted by Peter Rathjen and team at Velyere, located between Dandaragan and Badgingarra. This season marks the beginning of a new GRDC-supported trial exploring nitrogen banking strategies on deep brown sands, a soil type common across the West Midlands.

The site includes six treatments replicated four times, comparing different nitrogen application strategies including farmer practice, economic optimal rates, high N bank targets, and modelled decile-based recommendations from Yield Prophet. The trial design has been developed with the assistance of CSIRO’s Yvette Oliver and the broader RiskWi$e Project team, and will continue in future seasons to capture multi-year outcomes.

This site is part of the RiskWi$e Project’s Nitrogen Decisions theme, led in WA by the Grower Group Alliance, nationally by CSIRO, and funded by the GRDC.

Drought Resilience and Stacked Soil Amelioration & Amendments – Wathingarra Rd, Badgingarra

The second site, hosted by Jeremy Roberts on Wathingarra Rd, Badgingarra, enters its fifth year as part of the Soil CRC’s Drought Resilience Long-Term Trials. Wheat has been sown following two years of serradella, creating a valuable opportunity to examine how legume-derived nitrogen interacts with historical soil amelioration treatments and a suite of novel amendments.

The site continues research originally established through the Future Carbon Project and now contributes to the Soil CRC’s broader investigation into how stacked soil treatments such as compost, gypsum, clay, frass, and biochar, can improve crop performance, soil health and water-holding capacity. More background on this site’s history and treatment layout is available via WMG’s technical update.

Trial operations at Wathigarra are now being managed by the Kaylx team, with all measurements and in-season analysis conducted by WMG staff.

This project is supported by funding through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund under the Long-Term Trials Program and The CRC for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC).

What’s Next?

Both sites will form part of WMG’s seasonal events calendar later in the year, offering members and local growers a chance to see the work first-hand and hear early findings as they emerge.

Stay tuned for updates via WMG social media, website, and upcoming WMG ‘What You Missed’ eNewsletters as the season progresses.