Supporting farmers and land managers across the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia to evolve their soil testing programs.
Although the benefits of soil testing are widely recognized by land managers, the extent of its adoption varies greatly, ranging from ad-hoc testing for general knowledge to systematic point or grid sampling for continuous validation of farm decision-making processes. Many factors, such as cost, time, and complexity of results, can act as barriers to increasing the complexity or frequency of a soil testing program.
Regular sampling and lab testing provides farmers with critical information to make informed decisions about input requirements, paddock optimisation and limiting factors. It is well documented that a combination of soil tests and on-farm observations will assist in determining the nutrient requirements of both crops and pastures. Regular tests build a better profile and the saying ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’ rings true in the case of soil sampling.
The goal of the Evolving Soil Testing Project is to assist farmers and land managers in the Wheatbelt region of WA with improving their soil testing program and implementing sustainable practices that enhance soil health. WMG aims to initiate a dialogue and establish connections between farmers and industry professionals, providing them with the necessary resources and information to feel confident about soil testing and recognise its significance. The project emphasises capacity building, enabling farmers and land managers to enhance their soil testing practices continually.
Commencement: 2022 | Completion: 2024
Funding body(s): Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program Project Lead Organisation: The West Midlands Group Collaborators: Corrigin Farm Improvement Group
Who is involved?
WMG are working with 10 farmers across the West Midlands region including farms in Badgingarra, Warradarge, Dandaragan, Moora, Yathroo, Eganu, Gillingarra, and Coomberdale. Alongside WMG, Corrigin Farm Improvement Group are working with 7 farmers. Each farmer is selecting a particular focus area in which they would like to evolve their current soil testing practices before being paired with a suitably qualified soil professional to both sample and to provide an understanding of the results.
2023 focus areas
Across the two regions, focus areas range from gaining baseline soil data or simply increasing test complexity, to examining paddock, soil, and season variability, limiting factors, input responses, nutrient movement, soil organic carbon levels and microbiology assessments.
The SoilsWest Soil Quality ebook series has been compiled to provide landholders, industry and students the state of knowledge and practical strategies on identifying, managing and integrating solutions to manage the soil resource, with a focus on agriculture in the south-western agricultural region of Western Australia.
An excellent NSW DPI webinar presented by Jason Condon explaining the basics of soil test results so that we can better understand what they are telling us about the soil and how they can be related to plant performance.
MySoil is a simple tool to identify soil types. Growers can use soil identification to improve soil management and reduce the impact of soil constraints.
