| Researcher(s) |
Giacomo Betti (DAFWA) Stephen Davies (DAFWA) Liam Harte (DAFWA) |
|---|---|
| Year(s) | 2015 |
| Contributor | West Midlands Group |
| Trial location(s) |
Badgingarra, WA
|
To identify suitable options for managing soil water repellence on sandy gravels.
This first year study has shown that the adoption of a strategic tillage practice (one-way plough) provided a significant improvement in terms of crop establishment and grain yields on a moderately repellent sandy gravel. The adoption of other agronomic options, such as paired-row sowing or wetters, in this instance did not provide any noticeable improvement in comparison to the control treatments. In fact, in one case (wetter 1), the cost of the treatment was not covered by the yield increase.
Without doubt, the tillage proved to be the most effective treatment for reducing SWR but at this stage it is not possible to evaluate the extent to which this improvement alone contributed to the significant increase in yields.
With this long term experiment, we expect the following seasons to give us more information to better understand what changes drive the yield increase and possibly the potential longevity of these improvements.
| Lead research organisation |
Department of Agriculture and Food WA |
|---|---|
| Host research organisation |
West Midlands Group |
| Trial funding source | DAFWA |
| Trial funding source | GRDC DAW00244 |
| Related program | N/A |
| Acknowledgments |
This work was supported by DAFWA and GRDC (DAW00244: Delivering enhanced agronomic strategies for improved crop performance on water repellent soils in Western Australia). Thanks and appreciation to Graham and Helen Lethlean for hosting the trial site. Thanks to Ben and Sean Plozza for one-way ploughing and Trevor Bell and Greg Brown (DAFWA) for technical support.
|
| Other trial partners | Not specified |
| Crop type | Cereal (Grain): Wheat |
|---|---|
| Treatment type(s) |
|
| Trial type | Experimental |
| Trial design | Replicated |
| Sow rate or Target density | 75kg/ha |
|---|---|
| Sowing machinery |
Cone seeder, Modified one-way plough. |
| Sow date | 28 May 2015 |
| Harvest date | Not specified |
| Plot size | 2m x 10m |
| Plot replication | 4 |
| Fertiliser |
80 kg/ha of Agstar extra (28/05/15) and 50 L/ha of UAN (23/06/15). |
| Herbicide |
150 g/ha of Sakura (28/05/15), 0.4 L/ha of MCPA 600 LVE (08/07/15) and 800 ml/ha of Velocity (08/07/15). |
| Insecticide |
200 ml/ha of Lorsban (28/05/15) and 200 ml/ha of Dominex (28/05/15). |
| Rainfall trial gsr (mm) | 334mm |
|---|
SILO weather estimates sourced from https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/
Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B. and Beswick, A.R. (2001). Using spatial interpolation to
construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data , Environmental Modelling and Software, Vol
16/4, pp 309-330. DOI: 10.1016/S1364-8152(01)00008-1.
