Red loam trials

To evaluate whether Apron XL improves crop establishment, root development and yields in field pea crops by protecting seedlings against the early effects of root diseases.

To examine mineral fertiliser/microbe programs and the value of adding various forms of extra or top up N.

This project sought to maximise the profitability of barley in the northern Geraldton Port Zone by providing information to growers to allow them to make informed decisions around barley variety choice, sowing time, in season management and management of their rotations in order to maximise barley productivity and improve the overall profitability of their farming business.

The project sort to answer specific questions of -

Do barley’s have specific adaptation which can be exploited.

Can varieties attain malt quality in the Geraldton Port zone.

Do variety maturity and planting times influence yield and grain quality, particularly with early sowing opportunities.

Does barley out yield wheat, sown early, or sown late.

Was barley profitable compared to wheat.

Can early sowing of short season varieties provide a maturity window and low risk option to avoid late season hot/dry finishes and produce a profitable yield.

To gather data on barley performance when late sowing on ameliorated soils. Can barley provide a more profitable option than wheat for late sowing on ameliorated soils?

Gain a better understanding of nitrogen management with different rotations or soil types (including soil amelioration) for barley yield with feed quality and for malt production.

Did barleys differ in their response to nitrogen.

Can early sowing and fertilising for high yield feed deliveries be more profitable than wheat.

Did project sample an adequate range of seasons.

The GRDC Stubble project aims to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP). Weed control in stubble retained systems is an issue with reduced herbicide efficacy due to higher stubble loads especially for pre-emergence herbicides. Current farming practices have also changed weed behaviour with later germinating barley grass genotypes now being present in many paddocks on Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC) (B Fleet, EPFS Summary 2011, p 177). As a part of the stubble project several MAC farm demonstrations were undertaken in 2014 to address barley grass weed issues including later germinating types and barley grass resistance to Group A herbicides within the farming system. An integrated approach to weed management aimed at lowering the weed seed bank can make use of diverse techniques such as cultivation, stubble burning, in-crop competition using higher sowing rates and possibly row orientation. The seed bank of crop weeds can be reduced within the break phase by hay making, or green or brown manuring. Other techniques used effectively in WA with ryegrass and wild radish have been narrow windrows and chaff carts, however little research has been done on the effectiveness of these approaches with barley grass because of its early shedding of seeds before harvest. Project: EPF00001 Maintaining profitability in retained stubble systems - upper Eyre Peninsula.

The GRDC ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ project aims to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP). Weed control in stubble retained systems can be compromised where herbicide efficacy is limited due to higher stubble loads, especially for preemergent herbicides. Current farming practices have also changed weed  behavior with later germinating barley grass genotypes now present in many paddocks on the Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC) (B Fleet, EPFS Summary 2011). Several MAC farm demonstrations  were undertaken in 2014 to address barley grass weed issues including later germinating types and barley grass resistance to Group A herbicides. An integrated approach to weed management aimed at lowering the weed seed bank can make use of diverse techniques such as cultivation, stubble burning, in-crop competition using higher sowing rates and possibly row orientation. The weed seed bank can be reduced within the break phase by hay making, or green or brown manuring. Other techniques used effectively in WA on ryegrass and wild  radish have been narrow windrows and chaff carts. However there is limited information on the effectiveness of these tactics on barley grass in part because it is believed that most seed is shed well before harvest, limiting control. In 2015 the monitoring of farm paddock demonstrations in low rainfall farming systems to  assess control methods for grass weeds, mainly targeting barley grass, were undertaken by;
• Monitoring of narrow windrows in MAC paddocks N1 and N6W, and Bruce Heddle’s paddock CE42 (windrows and chaff dumps).
• Spray topping after oat and vetch hay (MAC paddock S4) using both crop competition (high seeding rate) followed by spray topping after the hay cut.

To compare efficacy of new and old herbicides and herbicide mixtures for broadleaf weed control in chickpea.

To compare yield and quality of new and existing canola varieties in a paddock scale demonstration trial.

Compare canola varieties

To evaluate two chickpea varieties sown at two seeding depths and two seeding rates by two different row spacings.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of newly registered fungicides on ascochyta in chickpeas.

To evaluate new and existing chickpea varieties.

We aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of using clean seed and seed applied fungicide to minimise the amount of Ascochyta in a chickpea crop, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of early season foliar fungicides to keep disease levels at bay.

To determine if deep ripping overcomes compaction and increases yield on a red sandy loam.

• To compare the yield of the new Albus lupin Andromeda with Kiev Mutant in a low rainfall area.
• To compare the performance of Kaspa field pea with the trailing types in a low rainfall area.

To determine optimum foliar fungicide management for hyper-yielding canola.

Individual objectives specific to the trial are:
1. Determine the value of contrasting major gene blackleg resistance groups in HYC environments:
a. BC (45Y28 RR and 45Y93 CL) – largely ineffective major gene resistance (good minor gene resistance).
b. ABD (HyTTec Trifecta) – currently effective major gene resistance.

2. Determine the effect of fungicide management strategies on disease control (upper canopy blackleg and sclerotinia), grain yield and profitability.

To evaluate and determine the profitability of different strategies of disease management.

To evaluate Diuron as a broadleaf weed killer pre sowing of lupins and to evaluate some mixing partners to improve the control of grass weeds.

To compare grain yield and grain quality of a mid-late maturing variety (Trojan) and two early-mid season maturing varieties (Mace and Scepter).

To examine the effect of gypsum on soil pH and soil C and whether changes in soil pH could alter productivity of the following cereal crops.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

One issue Mount Cooper farmers identified as an issue was the establishment of self-regenerating medic pastures into heavy stubble residues. The trial reported here was designed to compare medic establishment and production, with different management strategies imposed on the previous crop stubble residues.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

One issue upper EP farmers identified as a problem was sowing into retained pasture residue with pasture vines causing issues with blockages at sowing and uneven germination. Also establishing legume pastures into heavy stubble residues has also an issue in this region. The trial at Mount Cooper was designed to compare plant establishment and production, and weed and pest control effectiveness in the presence and absence of previous crop or legume pasture residues.

To assess the potential of the new Field Pea variety Kaspa against established varieties.

To conduct a field pea variety evaluation.

To develop a phosphorus response curve and investigate responses to sulphur, zinc, manganese and copper.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

The Minnipa Agricultural Centre S3S pasture trial was established in 2013 to assess barley grass weed management with a two year medic pasture break. The trial had different grass weed management and tillage treatments imposed in 2013 and in 2014. The trial was then sown with wheat in 2015.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

The Minnipa Agricultural Centre S3S pasture trial was established in 2013 to assess barley grass weed management with a two year medic pasture break. The trial had different grass weed management and tillage treatments imposed in 2013 and in 2014. The trial was then sown with wheat in 2015 and 2016.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

The Minnipa Agricultural Centre S3S pasture trial was established in 2013 to assess the impact of a two year medic pasture break on barley grass. The trial had different grass weed management and tillage treatments imposed in 2013 and 2014. The trials were sown with wheat in 2015 and 2016, and allowed to regenerate with medic pasture in 2017.

To demonstrate the growth rates and carrying capacities of new pasture species and to show options available for improving pasture productivity.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP). Weed control in stubble retained systems can be compromised when stubbles and organic residues intercept the herbicide and prevent it from reaching the desired target, or the herbicide is tightly bound to organic matter. Reduced herbicide efficacy in the presence of higher stubble loads is a particular issue for pre-emergence herbicides. Current farming practices have also changed weed dormancy in barley grass genotypes in many paddocks on Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC).

As a part of the stubble project this trial was undertaken to assess herbicide efficacy (effectiveness) in different stubble management systems. To understand how herbicides perform it is important to know the properties of the herbicide, the soil type and how the herbicide is broken down in the environment. The availability of a herbicide is an interaction between the solubility of a herbicide, how tightly it is bound to soil particles and organic matter, soil structure, cation exchange capacity and pH, herbicide volatility, soil water content and the rate of herbicide applied (EPFS Summary 2015, p132).

This article reports on the results of the second year of the trial, with a third year of the trial to be conducted in 2017.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP). One of the barriers to retaining stubble is the perceived reduction in pre-emergent herbicide effectiveness (efficacy) in stubbles. This component of the project is testing whether various stubble management activities impact on herbicide efficacy.

Weed control in stubble retained systems can be compromised when stubbles and other plant residues intercept the herbicide and prevent it from reaching the desired target, or the herbicide is tightly bound to organic matter. Reduced herbicide efficacy in the presence of higher stubble loads is a particular issue for pre-emergence herbicides. Current farming practices have also changed weed behavior; eg prolonged dormancy in barley grass has been confirmed in many paddocks on Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC). As a part of the stubble project this trial was undertaken to assess herbicide efficacy in different stubble management systems.

This article reports on the results of the third and final year of the trial. See EPFS Summaries 2015 and 2016 for previous trial reports.

Barley grass continues to be a persistent grassy weed in low rainfall farming systems and current farming practices have selected for increased seed dormancy. This change in seed dormancy has resulted in Barley grass germinating later, and being much harder to control with knockdown and pre-emergent herbicides. In 2018 a range of herbicide strategies was tested for their effectiveness on a high density population of Barley grass.

To determine the response to increased crop inputs (fungicide and nitrogen) of a range of canola variety types.

To examine the suitability of elite commercial and unreleased spring cultivars for Hyperyielding regions

To examine the suitability of elite commercial and unreleased winter canola cultivars for Hyper-yielding regions

With larger seeding programs, increased summer weed control to conserve soil moisture and more variable autumn rainfall patterns, more growers Australia-wide are moving toward dry sowing.

On upper Eyre Peninsula in 2017 and 2018, seed was placed in the soil for many weeks with limited soil moisture, some seed still germinated but the delayed plant emergence often resulted in a lower plant establishment. This raised questions by growers about the soil factors which reduce germination and establishment.

This article summarises a pot trial which assessed the impact of DAP placement on wheat establishment on three different soil types; a red loam (Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC)) and two grey calcareous soils (Streaky Bay and Cungena).

To maintain or improve crop production through applying alternative weed, disease and pest control options in pasture wheat rotations in the presence of crop residues. The trial was established in 2013 with different stubble treatments imposed at harvest and was sown either inter row or in row with wheat in 2014.

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).

The Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC) S7 stubble retention trial was established to maintain or improve crop production through applying alternative weed, disease and pest control options in pasture wheat rotations in the presence of crop residues. The trial was established in 2013 with wheat and different stubble treatments imposed at harvest annually. It was sown either inter row or on row in 2014-17 to determine the impacts of stubble management on crop production, weeds, disease and pests in low rainfall farming systems.

With larger seeding programs, increased summer weed control to conserve soil moisture and more variable autumn rainfall patterns, many growers Australia wide are continuing to dry-sow. More traditionally, growers may have previously ‘dabbled a little’ in dry-sowing and are observing with interest the successes and failures of dry-sowing systems.

On upper Eyre Peninsula in 2017 and 2018, seed was placed in the soil for many weeks with limited soil moisture; some seed still germinated but the delayed plant emergence often resulted in a lower plant establishment. This raised questions by EP farmers and consultants about the soil factors which influence seed germination and establishment.

Research trials were established in 2019 to assess the impact of management on seed germination and establishment on three different soil types in field trials and pot experiments; a red loam [Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC)] and two grey calcareous soils (Cungena and Streaky Bay) for:

• Impact of fertiliser type (P and N) and fertiliser placement,
• Impact of practices, herbicides and seed dressings.

This article reports on field trials undertaken in 2019 at three sites.

To evaluate the quality and yield of Carnamah wheat in response to a range of in-furrow fungicide applications.

• To investigate legume pasture options for controlling group A (ACCase inhibitors) resistant barley grass (GRDC project UA00149).
• The trial also looked at the impact of these pasture treatments on a subsequent wheat crop and compared one vs. two consecutive years of legume pasture on barley grass management in the absence of group A herbicides.

This trial was developed to examine the efficacy of seeding and foliar fungicide combinations for control of rust (stripe and leaf rust) and leaf spotting diseases (septoria nodorum and yellow spot) in wheat.

To evaluate yield and quality response of existing wheat varieties when treated at different nitrogen rates. Aiming to maximise nitrogen use efficiency by matching inputs to variety.

Barley grass weed density was monitored in three paddocks on upper EP (Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC), Heddle's at Minnipa and Wilkins' at Yaninee) using a UAV during the 2017 growing season at three different timings, with paddock transects conducted to verify grass weed density in paddocks.

Barley grass weed density was monitored in three paddocks on upper EP (Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC), Heddle’s at Minnipa and Wilkins’ at Yaninee using an UAV during the 2017 (EPFS Summary 2017, p 83) and 2018 growing seasons at three different timings, with paddock transects conducted to verify grass weed density in paddocks.

Barley grass continues to be a major grass weed in cereal cropping regions on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP). The use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology to identify and assess barley grass populations in paddocks and monitor potential resistant populations may be a useful tool for farmers. This approach was tested in three paddocks on upper EP Minnipa Agricultural Centre (MAC), Minnipa Hill and Yaninee using a UAV during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 growing seasons at three different timings, with paddock transects conducted to verify grass weed density in paddocks. In 2019 grass weed escape paddocks were targeted at MAC and Condada in the final flights.

The aim of the research was to determine if the UAV imagery could monitor the grass weed populations across seasons in crops and pastures, if resistant weed patches were continually in the same area of the paddock and if the information could be useful for farmers to adopt this method to better target grass weed control.

To conduct a break crop trial at Mt Cooper.

To push the nitrogen inputs at Minnipa Agricultural Centre to achieve a target yield of 2 t/ha.

To determine optimum nitrogen nutrient management (including rate and timing) for hyper-yielding canola.

To determine the effect of N application rates on the yield and grain quality of eight popular bread wheat varieties at Gilgandra in central NSW in 2015. 

To determine the effect of N rate on the yield and grain quality of eight popular bread wheat varieties at Gilgandra in central NSW in 2015.