2025 AIR EP Member Days – Agronomy is hot, hot, hot!

Held on two of the hottest consecutive days this summer, the AIR EP bandwagon braved the blistering conditions to host the annual Member Days. Not going to lie, we were all sweating harder than a frozen snag on a hot plate.

Delivering the annual Member Days across three locations, Wirrulla, Kimba and Ungarra, AIR EP connected leading researchers and guest speakers to a broad network of members, farmers, advisors and industry stakeholders.

As the forecast skyrocketed towards 45 degrees at Wirrulla, our optimism towards registrations started to quietly plummet when the local publican declared “you’ll be lucky to get any farmers there, they’ll all be out fishing”, as he left town with rod in hand at 6:30am the following morning.

Not sure if the silvers had stopped biting or the blue swimmers had moved on for the season but agronomy was clearly front of mind for many, with over 180 participants attending over the course of the three days.

The theme of the Members Days was “Pre sowing” which incorporated crop selection, soil nutrition, nitrogen management, herbicide residues, soil amelioration, frost mitigation, and most things in between.

Facilitated by AIR EP Chair and Ag Consulting Co Director Bill Long, each session was tailored to assist growers and advisors in making decisions towards their 2025 sowing program, on the back of a challenging 2024 season and unusually dry summer.

Bringing his vast soils and agronomy experience to the Eyre Peninsula, founder and Managing Director of Frontier Farming Systems, Michael Moodie shared his findings on safely ameliorating sandy soils to produce high value legume crops.

Based in Mildura, Victoria, Michael has extensive experience working in low-medium rainfall Mallee farming systems, and was recently awarded the GRDC Seed of Light, recognising the outstanding contribution, dedication and commitment to communicating research outcomes to people working in the grains industry.

Michael emphasised the importance of understanding specific soil constraints and aligning them with the right amelioration treatment, to get the best ground cover results or improve yields. In addition, time of sowing and crop selection following the ripping phase were equally as important in achieving successful results.

“Once you understand the specific (soil) constraint, it’s important to get the treatment and machinery setup right. It can help avoid making the problem worse”, said Michael.

“Soil amelioration is helping to continuously improve our farming systems, and pulses have been demonstrated to do very well following ripping,” he adds.

Soils researcher, Brett Masters and agronomy researcher, Jacob ‘Jake’ Giles of the EPAG Research team joined forces with CSIRO Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader, Dr Therese McBeath to deliver comprehensive sessions on current soil moisture status, nitrogen management and nutrition strategies in 2025.

As observed by SA Drought Hub Node Coordinator, Fiona Tomney “the panel with Brett Masters, Jake Giles and Dr Therese McBeath was a great idea as it really tied together their separate presentations on soil nutrition into a larger pool of knowledge.”

It was clear P application, strategies and responses was a high priority for growers and advisors as they race towards the coming season.

This discussion flowed seamlessly into the presentation from local, independent agronomist James Cant of AGRA Agronomy. With a background in soil and plant nutrition from previous roles with Injekta Field Systems and Technical Lead for Wilchem micronutrient manufacturers, James provided a solid overview towards the current landscape of residual herbicides.

Previously unseen crop damage left many scratching their heads in 2024, asking “Is it fertiliser toxicity? Is it chemical damage? Is it moisture stress?” Herbicide residues were the cause of many headaches for growers and advisors, and on the back of a very dry summer, James feels everyone should be exercising caution with what could be lurking beneath the surface.

“Many factors will impact how a chemical will breakdown in your soil type. Microbes help break down residues and are most active when there is soil moisture, so it’s very challenging during dry seasons when microbe populations are low”, said James.

Strategies for the 2025 season included encouraging growers and advisors to install small scale herbicide residue plots in paddocks that could have some lingering nasties.

“It doesn’t have to be anything big, or fancy, just peg off a 2m x 2m square, give it 60L water to replicate a 15mm opening rain and scratch in whatever crop seed you are thinking of growing. You’ll get an idea if you have any residues based on how it comes up”, suggested James.

In addition, leaf tissue testing is an effective strategy to identify herbicide residue damage – albeit it may be too late as the crop has been sown, but could provide indication as to whether additional nutrition is required.

“Anything you can do to improve nutrition early will help your plants”, said James.

On row sowing would also be beneficial for anyone wanting to reduce risk of herbicide residue damage, however while not impossible, James believes this would be more logistically challenging, “within row will be far safer, but placement may be logistically challenging without a disc system”, he said.

With early indications of a Tinder relationship developing between ‘soil amelioration’ and ‘frost reduction’, EPAG researcher Rhaquelle Meiklejohn’s frost trial findings demonstrated that we are only scratching the surface when it comes to understanding soils, and the role it plays in supporting other aspects of our farming systems.

Having recently returned from presenting her frost research at the GRDC Research Updates in Adelaide, Rhaquelle highlighted the importance of “Frost Zoning” as a strategy to mitigate frost damage/losses in various crop types. Each ‘Zone’, being either Green (no risk), Amber (medium risk) or Red (high risk), is aligned to crop types that maintain low, medium or high tolerance to frost. This system can help with the decision-making process when planning cropping programs, based on historical farm data.

Crop type selections per zone include:

• Green (no frost risk) – peas, quick wheat, slow wheat
• Amber (medium risk, doesn’t get frosted every year) – canola, lentils, barley
• Red (high frost risk, almost every year) – sheep, summer crop, beans, hay

In speaking specifically about the relationship observed between frost and soil amelioration, Rhaquelle says, “when you ameliorate, you get yield benefits but we cannot say it’s 100% a mechanism to prevent frost damage. We believe there may be some links to soil temperature changes, or the increase in plant biomass / vigour from amelioration makes them stronger in standing up to the frost events.”

Many were interested in the correlation between the two, with one Kimba farmer commenting, “it would be good to investigate the relationship between frost and soil amelioration further.”

All we can say for now is to watch this space….or Tinder……for more!

Passion was igniting for another hot topic on the program – weed control. Yes, you read that right. Weed control was getting many people feeling hot under the collar. And no, it wasn’t due to the blistering temperatures outdoors. Well, it was sort of, but you know what we mean.

Flux Robotics demonstrated their robotic self-propelled, solar-powered precision sprayer. Founded by Jamestown engineer and entrepreneur, Jordy Kitschke, Flux Robotics is one of multiple AgTech companies Jordy has founded, also working on technologies across the livestock, horticulture and grains sectors. Working with aerospace engineer Jord – yes, you read that correctly, Flux Robotics is a startup business building autonomous robotic solutions to put new methods of weed control in the hands of farmers.

Funded by local growers in Jamestown area, the concept was born from growers seeking solutions to reduce labour requirements and targeted broadleaf control in lentil crops. And clearly Jordy and his team are onto a winner, with 50 units now sold and orders scheduled to be filled by mid 2026.

Although it doesn’t sound like AgTech is always a walk in the park, with Jordy joking “starting up a robotics company isn’t something I’d recommend, it certainly has it’s challenges.”

The Flux Rover can cover 20 hectares per day over 24 hour period, depending on number of solar hours available throughout the day. The 120 litre tank size will last up to 1 week, based on 5 plants per square metre.

What became clear at each demonstration, was how much growers have evolved their attitude towards AgTech and where practical units like the Flux Rover can fit their farming system. And perhaps that’s the secret to Flux Robotics success, is that the founder was raised on a farm and is working directly with growers to develop something that meets their needs, in line with technology available. It’s very exciting and we look forward to seeing what Flux does next here in South Australia.

And we aren’t alone with these thoughts. In reflecting on the Ungarra event, one farmer stated “The robot sprayer was hands down best thing. All farmers like looking at something practical and machinery related”.

EPAG Research owner and GRDC Southern Panel Member, Andrew Ware summarised the agronomy topics previously presented throughout the day, stepping the audience through a reflection of the 2024 season and the decisions growers and advisors make in planning for the 2025 season.

When asked whether growers and advisors are planning on doing anything differently in 2025 (based on learnings from 2024), many felt managing frost via variety selection, soil types and timing would be high on their agenda; along with testing or closely monitoring herbicide resistance.

Across the board, more lentils will be planted due to improved agronomic knowledge, or soil amelioration strategies on soils previously unable to grow legumes. The farming systems trial at Edillilie in 2024 demonstrated lentils will leave soil moisture behind, which is great news for anyone farming in low-medium rainfall zones. A difference of 24mm in soil moisture was observed between lentil and canola crops.

At Ungarra, strategies for managing SDHI fungicide resistance detected in blackleg fungus on EP was discussed in detail.

The University of Melbourne has detected SDHI resistance in a small number of blackleg samples collected from the region, Andrew confirmed no field failure has been reported at this stage.

Resistance was detected as part of routine monitoring and surveillance for the emergence of fungicide resistance. Routine monitoring has been conducted in other canola growing regions. Resistance to SDHI fungicides has not been detected outside of the Eyre Peninsula.

• Some of the recommended strategies for farmers included: Select cultivars with high blackleg rating to reduce reliance on fungicides for controlling blackleg.
• Plant this year’s canola crop at least 500m away from last year’s canola crop (or any other brassica crop).

• In areas where resistant isolates have been detected, if using a SDHI as a seed treatment or foliar application, use an effective fertiliser/in-furrow treatment combination, tank mix or co-formulation with an alternate mode of action that includes a DMI (Group 3) or QoI (Group 11) fungicide.

Andrew encouraged growers to download the Blackleg CM app as a useful resource for farmers growing canola in 2025.

Rounding out the program was local grower Andrew Polkinghorne, who presented his 2023 Churchill Fellowship findings on global liquid P systems. A passionate grain producer at Lock, Andrew was recently recognised for his significant contributions to the South Australian grain sector, winning the GPSA Grain Producer of the Year.

Andrew runs a 7,000 hectare cropping and sheep farm with his family. Their cropping regime includes growing wheat, barley, canola, and lentils. The livestock enterprise is a self-replacing merino flock with 600 ewes and following stock. Andrew has extensive experience on various Boards including T-Ports Pty Ltd, South Australian Grains Industry Trust (SAGIT), District Council of Elliston, is a former AIR EP Board Member, founding member of EPARF, and past Australian Farmer of the Year.

Growers with calcareous soil types were interested to know more about liquid P fertiliser, seeking further information towards cost of system, application rates and benefits. In asking Andrew about his experience using liquid P on farm, he stated “50% of the farm is highly responsive to P, with another 25% moderately responsive. I feel it helps with vigour in getting the crop out of the ground quickly.”

His general rule of thumb for growers on EP looking to use liquid P, Andrew says “where you cannot grow lupins, you are likely to get a good response to fluid P”.

In addition to sharing his findings on liquid P, Andrew shared his farming system observations from his fellowship across the UK, USA, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

To view Andrew’s full report, visit https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/andrew-polkinghorne-sa-2023/

Thank you to all AIR EP members, speakers, sponsors, advisors, and industry stakeholders for your support throughout the AIR EP Member Days. We wish you all the best for the coming season, and look forward to what the year has in store.

For further information on the event or presentations, please contact AIR EP.

Electronic copies of the event booklet are available for financial AIR EP members on request.