Seeking Demonstration Site Hosts – Dry saline land management (magnesia patches)

AIR EP has been successful in securing GRDC funding, in collaboration with Upper North Farming Systems, the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, SARDI Minnipa Agricultural Centre and Mallee Sustainable Farming, to deliver a project focused on improving the management of dry saline land across key regions of South Australia.

As part of this project, demonstration site hosts are being sought across the Upper Eyre Peninsula, particularly in the Wirrulla and Kimba areas, to support the evaluation of practical, farm-scale strategies for managing dry saline land. Dry saline land (often referred to as magnesia country) occurs when salts move from the subsoil to the surface during hot, dry conditions, reducing plant establishment, growth, and overall productivity. A key principle in managing these areas is maintaining soil cover to reduce evaporation and limit salt accumulation at the surface.

Purpose of Demonstration Sites

• Demonstrate and evaluate a range of mitigation and management strategies suited to local conditions.
• Support grower-led decision making through collaboration with growers and advisers.
• Generate regionally relevant data on productivity, practicality, and economics.
• Improve understanding of both short-term seasonal responses and longer-term rehabilitation options.

Each site will be monitored through to at least 2028 to assess treatment longevity and performance over varying seasonal conditions.

Selecting Management Strategies for Your Site

Site hosts will work with project staff to select treatments that best suit their soil type, severity of salinity, and operational constraints. Strategies fall into two key categories:

1. Longer-Term Mitigation (Rehabilitation Focus)

These treatments aim to reduce salt movement and improve soil function over multiple seasons:

• Sand mulch
  • Proven to reduce capillary rise of saline moisture and improve crop establishment.
  • Effective depths of ~8–10 cm can significantly improve plant growth and yield.
  • Benefits can persist for many years, although effectiveness may decline as material incorporates into the soil.
• Organic matter (e.g. straw or manure)
  • Provides surface cover to reduce evaporation and salt accumulation.
  • Can rapidly reduce topsoil salinity and enable crop establishment.
• Gypsum or soil amendments (where appropriate)
  • May assist soil structure and infiltration depending on soil constraints.

Key principle: Maintaining groundcover is critical—bare soil allows salts to concentrate rapidly in the surface layers, often reaching toxic levels for crop growth.

2. Seasonal / Tactical Management (Productivity Focus)

These strategies aim to improve crop establishment and groundcover in-season:

• Opportunistic sowing following rainfall.
  • Rainfall can temporarily leach salts deeper into the profile, creating a short window (often 2–3 weeks) for successful establishment.
• On-row sowing
  • Targets reduced saline zones to improve emergence and early vigour.
• Salt-tolerant crop selection
  • Crops vary in tolerance and performance across sites and seasons.
  • Barley, wheat, oats, and other species may perform differently depending on conditions.
• Maximising and retaining groundcover.
  • Higher groundcover not only improves current crop performance but can increase yields in following seasons.

Key principle: Establishing and maintaining plant cover (living or residue) is one of the most effective tools for reducing dry saline land impacts.

Each demonstration site will include targeted assessments aligned to treatment objectives, such as:

• Plant establishment and vigour.
• Groundcover levels
• Soil salinity and condition (pre-seeding testing)
• Grain yield and production outcomes

Results will be tracked over multiple seasons to understand:

• Treatment longevity
• Seasonal variability in response
• Economic viability and return on investment.

What This Means for Site Hosts

Hosting a demonstration site provides an opportunity to:

• Trial practical solutions on your own farm
• Compare different management approaches side-by-side.
• Contribute to regionally relevant knowledge and extension.
• Better understand which strategies are most effective and economical for your system.

Importantly, there is no single solution for dry saline land—successful management depends on matching strategies to soil type, severity, seasonal conditions, and available resources.

If you are interested in holding a demonstration site and have the ability to implement a management strategy this season we would love to hear from you.

Please contact either Naomi eo@airep.com.au or 0428 540 670 or Amy amy.wright@airep.com.au 0467 004 555.

This work is funded by the GRDC project NGN Managing and Mitigating Dry Saline Soils (Magnesia Patches) in South Australia, project code AIP2602-001RTX. The project is also supported with technical expertise from Sean Mason, Agronomy Solutions and Chris McDonough, Insight Extension for Agriculture.