To see whether green manure a viable management option (in terms of maintenance of ground cover and other agronomic benefits) as we know that terminating cover crops will result in 100% seed set control providing that the crop is effectively killed at an appropriate time.
Key messages
The nitrogen status of the sites was captured prior to the treatments being implemented as a baseline for the nitrogen impact of the treatments in the second year crop.
The groundcover impact of each of the treatments has been assessed in December 2015 and February 2016.
The data already indicates that a number of the treatment will not be viable as they resulted in a less than 50 % groundcover which will increase the risk of erosion of Mallee sand to an unacceptable level.
At this stage the only viable options that reduce chemical usage are the cutting for hay and the use of a blade plough to terminate the crop and associated weeds.
Trial source data and summary not available Check the trial
report PDF for trial results.
Climate
Derived climate information
No observed climate data available for this trial. Derived climate data is
determined from trial site location and national weather sources.
Condobolin NSW
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.
