The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (June 2017) and may not be accurate, current or complete. The State of New South Wales (including the NSW Department of Industry), the author and the publisher take no responsibility, and will accept no liability, for the accuracy, currency, reliability or correctness of any information included in the document (including material provided by third parties). Readers should make their own inquiries and rely on their own advice when making decisions related to material contained in this publication. The product trade names in this publication are supplied on the understanding that no preference between equivalent products is intended and that the inclusion of a product name does not imply endorsement by the department over any equivalent product from another manufacturer.
| Researcher(s) |
Luke Beange (NSW DPI) John Cameron (Independent Consultants Australia Network ) Graeme Schwenke (NSW DPI) |
|---|---|
| Year(s) | 2016 |
| Contributor | Department of Primary Industries NSW |
| Trial location(s) |
Grafton, NSW
|
| Further information | View external link |
A survey was conducted to improve our understanding of how advisers make decisions relating to field crop N nutrition in order to
better target assistance to Australian grain growers and their advisers to reduce the uncertainty and financial risk associated with N management.
• Making nitrogen (N) management decisions requires an understanding of soil and plant science, and soil test interpretation.
• Training new agronomists is a priority.
• Senior NSW agronomists identified crop yield expectation as guided by soil moisture at sowing (or at the time of N decision making) as the most important determinant of N fertiliser requirement.
• Further research will increase the understanding of how management practices affect potentially large gaseous N losses.
• Changing from legume pasture-crop sequences to continuous cropping in many central and southern areas of New South Wales is posing new questions for managing N supply. Less frequent pasture legume phases with their N-fixation benefits to the soil is seen as a substantial loss of N-buffering capacity.
• Despite most advisers choosing soil testing as a key approach for determining N fertiliser required, many of their clients had a lower confidence in soil testing, citing ‘high perceived variability in soil nitrate results in the lead up to sowing’.
| Lead research organisation | N/A |
|---|---|
| Host research organisation | N/A |
| Trial funding source | GRDC UQ00079 |
| Related program | N/A |
| Acknowledgments |
This survey and follow-up interview series was part of the project ‘Organic matter and nutrient availability’, UQ00079, a collaborative project with joint investment by GRDC and the state agencies and universities in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and Western Australia. Special thanks to Fiona Pearson (NSW DPI) for transcribing the hard copy surveys, to Georgia Rose and Erica McKay (ICAN) for collating the survey data and transcribing the interviews, and to Helen Squires (NSW DPI) for producing the map. |
| Other trial partners | Not specified |
| Crop type | None: No crop specified |
|---|---|
| Treatment type(s) |
|
| Trial type | Article/commentary |
| Trial design | Not applicable |
| Sow date | Not applicable |
|---|---|
| Harvest date | Not applicable |
| Plot size | Not specified |
| Plot replication | Not specified |
| Other trial notes |
This research paper is an extract from the publication Southern NSW Research Results 2017, available at |
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.
