To explore systems to control the air–water interface to reduce evaporation from water storages.

To assess barley grass weed seed capture by swathing and weed seed capture in chaff dumps after harvest, to determine how effective these practices can be in contributing towards an IWM program for barley grass on upper Eyre Peninsula.

To test the hypothesis that "drainage of waterlogged soils in southwest Victoria through raised beds will increase crop and pasture production with beneficial modifications to soil properties". 

To look at best management practices for erosion and salinity control and compare crop and pasture growth, water use and subsequent recharge.

In 2006 seven Demonstration Sites funded by the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and the National Landcare Program continued to be used to demonstrate and measure the potential impact of best management practices for dryland agriculture in the Mallee.

To measure and report the potential impact of best management practices for dryland agriculture in the Mallee.

To examine the long-term environmental, biological and economic effects of alternate production systems.

 To compare the incidence of seed markings (tiger stripe/blotch) for a range of commercial chickpea varieties and advanced breeding lines sown on two sowing dates on the central western and north-western slopes of NSW.

To compare the effect of delayed harvest on pod splitting, grain weathering and yield for a range of commercial chickpea varieties. 

To establish the compatibility of a broad range of commonly used agricultural chemicals in association with rhizobial inoculants an dgrain legume seed.

To report on a survey of the “Red Leaf Clover Syndrome”.

The objective of this survey is to understand if HWSC systems influence in mice populations in paddocks.

Properties with mice activity around sheds or houses were targeted.

There are three non-burning and non-mechanical techniques most commonly employed in harvest weed seed control (HWSC) systems: chaff dumping, chaff lining and chaff tram-lining. The highest adoption of HWSC is in the GRDC western region with an estimated 67% of all farmers undertaking at least one HWSC strategy in 2014.

Chaff dumping is the collection of the chaff fraction using a cart towed behind the harvester. The chaff in the cart is then dumped, usually in piles in the paddock. The chaff is then either burnt, grazed or left to decompose.

For chaff lining, the chaff and weed seeds are confined to a row directly behind the harvester using a narrow chute. The chaff and weed seeds are then left to decompose over time. To promote decomposition, the chaff lines need to be placed in the same location year after year by running the harvester on a controlled traffic system (CTF).

Chaff tramlining is a similar concept to chaff lining, but the chaff fraction is diverted from the chaff deck onto permanent wheel tracks in a CTF system. Wheel traffic creates a hostile environment that inhibits weed seed germination.

There has been a recent system change with more growers opting for leaving chaff in-situ to rot, whether in dumps or in lines, rather than burning. This investigation aimed to better understand invertebrate species and mice associated with these HWSC systems, which to date are poorly understood, in each of the five port zones: Albany, Esperance, Geraldton, Kwinana’s East and West.

To identify management decisions that impact on blackspot in field peas and to validate disease risk predictions from Blackspot Manager.

Barley grass is now one of the top 10 weeds of Australian cropping in terms of area infested, crop yield loss and revenue loss (Llewellyn et al. 2016). Barley grass has several biological traits that make it difficult for growers to manage it in the low rainfall zone, so it is not surprising that it is becoming more prevalent in field crops in SA and WA.

Through recent GRDC investment, the research project ‘Demonstrating and validating the implementation of integrated weed management strategies to control barley grass in the low rainfall zone farming systems’ (hereby referred to as GRDC Low Rainfall Barley Grass) has commenced. An initial grower survey of current practice and attitudes towards barley grass was undertaken in 2019 to be used as the baseline to assess changes in grower attitudes and any change in practices after the completion of the three-year project.

This paper reports on the priority diseases identified in the 2020 crop surveys and highlights implications for grains producers in 2021.

To investigate the effect of two different methods of surface drainage ('raised beds' and 'hump and hollows') of pasture compared to an undrained control treatment on farm productivity and the potential impact on the environment. 

To record experiences of farmers using rotational grazing on stubbles (putting high numbers of stock on paddocks for short periods of time) suggest that more surface cover remains and less tracking is evident compared to paddocks where a lower stocking density for longer periods is used.

To trial supplementing sheep grazing medics with La Trobe pellets to accelerate growth.

To determine responses to Super Phos, Potash and Lime in a pasture wheat rotation over 5 years.

To conduct a super wheat crop demonstration.

To identify the limiting factors to wheat production in the southern Mallee.

To identify the limiting factors to field pea production in the southern Mallee.

To identify the limiting factors to canola production in the southern Mallee.

 To compare grain yield and oil responses with variations in row configurations, plant population and hybrid selection. 

To assess the impact on Pratylenchus thornei multiplication from a range of sunflower varieties.

To assess the impact of sunflower hybrids on Pratylenchus thornei build-up.

To assess the impact of sunflower hybrids on Pratylenchus thornei build-up.

To assess the impact on Pratylenchus thornei multiplication from a range of sunflower varieties.

To quantify the contribution of sunflower leaves to yield and oil quality by applying nine leaf defoliation treatments. 

Optimising sunflower performance relies on being able to match a hybrid with the growing environment and ensuring that the most suitable agronomic management is provided. Suitable crop agronomy involves using the most appropriate row configuration and plant population as well as ensuring adequate nutrition, disease and insect management. This experiment and others conducted in this series were designed to provide recommendations for growers and advisors to support decisions on optimal row configuration, plant population and hybrids for sunflower production in the north-western and Liverpool Plains regions of NSW. These two environments are the primary sunflower growing regions in northern NSW.

To evaluate various zinc strategies and compare liquid phosphorus in wheat on high pH soils.

To evaluate the benefits of drilled potassium when used in conjunction with higher phosphorus applications.

To determine the productivity gains from deep tillage in conjunction with potassium and high phosphorus supply over a number of seasons.

To determine which summer weed control method is most efficient and economical.

Assess the yield impact of different summer spray application timings at four trials in March 2017, following a widespread summer rainfall event.

• Conduct 197 in-paddock surveys in both 2019-20 and 2020-21 to identify the composition of summer weed species present across the GRDC Western region covering the 6 eco-agricultural zones.
• expand the understanding of WA’s current in-paddock summer weed flora
• better inform possible future initiatives on identification and management of summer weeds

To discuss summer weed control options.

To assess the effectiveness of a range of summer weed control options. The subsequent effect on yield as a result of weed control.

To highlight the effectiveness of summer weed control in conserving soil moisture for winter cereal cropping in the Central-Eastern Wheatbelt of WA.

To investigate the effectiveness of a number of herbicide treatments for the control of summer weeds such as heliotrope, padi melons and medic.

The aim of this trial was to determine the best options for controlling summer weeds using residual and knockdown herbicides with different adjuvants. 

To compare five control practices to determine the best weed management strategy for summer months on this particular soil type.

To evaluate a number of commercially available adjuvants to accompany glyphosate for summer weed control.

To compare two methods for the establishment of pasture legumes (i) summer sowing where dormant hard-seed is drill sown into the paddock after the crop is harvested and (ii) traditional sowing where scarified seed is drill sown after the break of the season and knockdown weed control.

• To evaluate the effectiveness of establishing annual legumes into established perennial grass-based pastures by 'summer' sowing of hard-seeded serradella pod.
• To test the effectiveness of drilling pod versus broadcasting of pod.

To evaluate the effectiveness of establishing annual legumes into established perennial grass-based pastures by 'summer' sowing of hard-seeded serradella pod.

To evaluate effectiveness of ‘summer sowing’ hard-seeded serradella pod into established perennial grass pastures.

To compare two methods for the establishment of pasture legumes (i) summer sowing where dormant hard-seed is drill sown into the paddock after the crop is harvested; and (ii) traditional sowing where scarified seed is drill sown after the break of the season and knockdown weed control.

To compare two methods for the establishment of pasture legumes (i) summer sowing where dormant hard-seed is drill sown into the paddock after the crop is harvested; and (ii) traditional sowing where scarified seed is drill sown after the break of the season and knockdown weed control.