Management options for dry saline soils on Upper Yorke Peninsula: The second season

2022 - 2023

Research organisatons
Funding source
Trengove Consulting Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc.
Future Drought Fund: Drought resilient soils

Trial details

Researcher(s) Declan Anderson
jordan bruce
Sarah Noack
Stuart Sherriff
Sam Trengove
Contact email samtrenny34@hotmail.com
Year(s) 2022 - 2023
Contributor Trengove Consulting
Trial location(s) Tickera, SA, SA
Management options for dry saline soils on Upper Yorke Peninsula: The second season locations
Aims

This research aims to trial and demonstrate different management practices which could be used by growers to ameliorate saline soil patches:

1) Amending soil with sand, straw or gypsum - application of amendments to the soil surface can improve crop emergence by reducing evaporation leading to more soil moisture, or by reducing the moisture required to germinate a seed by increasing the sand content of the soil surface. Gypsum was also included to increase the amount of calcium relative to the level of sodium (salt) and address sodicity in the longer-term.  

2) Selecting crop types/varieties – to investigate the differences in crop performance on saline soils between crop types and varieties with improved salt tolerance.

Key messages

• In season one lentil grain yields were generally low (0.16 t/ha – 0.62 t/ha) in the sand, straw and gypsum amelioration trial. The high sand application rate (1300 t/ha) was the only treatment to improve lentil grain yield compared to the control. 

• This season larger differences among the sand and straw rates are emerging. Sand rates above 650 t/ha and straw rates above 6.6 t/ha resulted in wheat grain yields of 1.95 t/ha – 2.42 t/ha compared to the control 0.67 t/ha. 

• Wheat yields following various crop type/varieties sown in 2022 to manage salinity ranged from 0.51 – 0.99 t/ha. Wheat yields following canola and field pea were higher compared to wheat following wheat, triticale or barley. 

• There was a link between wheat grain yield this season and plant cover from the various crop types/varieties at harvest last year. Crop types which had <40% plant cover at harvest resulted in lower wheat yields the following season. 

Lead research organisation Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc.
Host research organisation Trengove Consulting
Trial funding source Future Drought Fund: Drought resilient soils
Related program N/A
Acknowledgments

This program received funding from the Future Drought Fund – an Australian Government initiative project title ‘Building resilience to drought with landscape scale remediation of saline land’. Thank you to our project partners Mallee Sustainable Farming. We also acknowledge the support of local growers; Michael Barker trial host, Andrew Bruce supplied sand, Josh Flowers freight and Bruce Bros baled straw.  


Other trial partners Not specified
Download the trial report to view additional trial information

Method

Crop types Cereal (Grain): Wheat Grain Legume: Lentils Other: Not specified
Treatment type(s)
  • Crop: Type
  • Soil Improvement
Trial type Experimental
Trial design Replicated

Tickera, SA 2022 Wheat

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified

Tickera, SA 2022 Lentils

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified

Tickera, SA 2022 Not specified

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified

Tickera, SA 2023 Wheat

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified

Tickera, SA 2023 Lentils

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified

Tickera, SA 2023 Not specified

Sow date Not specified
Harvest date Not specified
Plot size Not specified
Plot replication Not specified
Psuedoreplication Not specified
Download the trial report to view additional method/treatment information
Trial source data and summary not available
Check the trial report PDF for trial results.
Observed trial site soil information
Trial site soil testing
Not specified
Soil conditions
Trial site Soil texture
Tickera, SA, SA Not specified
Derived trial site soil information
National soil grid Source: CSIRO/TERN
NOTE: National Soil Grid data is aggregated information for background information on the wider area
Actual soil values can vary significantly in a small area and the trial soil tests are the most relevant data where available

Soil properties

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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.

Tickera, SA SA

NOTE: Exact trial site locality unknown - Climate data may not be accurate
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Some data on this site is sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology

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.

Trial report and links

2023 Tickera saline soil report



Trial last modified: 03-04-2024 14:56pm AEST