Projects: Soils

Retaining soil water in farming systems using strip/disc machinery 2023

SA Drought Hub – Minnipa Node: Retaining soil water in farming systems using strip/disc machinery DN1_23_02 AIR EP, Buckleboo Farm Improvement Group and SARDI Minnipa Agricultural Centre  Demonstration sites were established in low rainfall farming systems to determine:   Can we measure increased stored soil water in strip/disc vs conventional no-till knife point systems?  Are there…

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SA Drought Hub Activities 2022: Soil cover to retain water

Summary Demonstration sites to be established in low rainfall farming systems to determine: 1. Can we measure increased stored soil water in strip/disc vs conventional no-till knife point systems? 2. Are there other measurable benefits to the farming system such as soil cover, nutrition, weeds, disease, yield, soil health measures? 3. Are there impacts on…

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SA Drought Hub Activities 2022: Best Practice Early Sowing Opportunities

Summary This project aimed to demonstrate and extend the findings of a SAGIT research project conducted in 2019-2021, which found ways to improve plant establishment and crop production by adopting specific early sowing techniques. Separating seed and fertiliser, sowing earlier than district practice, and using longer coleoptile wheat varieties to sow deeper into soil moisture,…

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Eastern Eyre Soil Management Opportunities

Summary Increase soil cover of bare soils over 20/21 summer. Gain increased understanding of summer crops/other activities to affect soil surface cover, erosion potential and plant growth. Overcome physical and chemical constraints to root growth. Measure impact on the following winter crop. Gain increased understanding of suitable cover crop species for Eastern EP. Gain increased…

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Robust ground cover to enable resilient low rainfall mixed farms

Summary This project will demonstrate, evaluate and communicate farming innovations that are not widely adopted by low rainfall farmers but have been proven in other regions or are close to market. Adoption will build resilient groundcover to protect the natural capital of the 10+ million hectare low rainfall mixed farming region of the Mallee and…

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Building drought resilience with landscape scale remediation of saline land

Summary This project aimed to demonstrate farmer ready management practices that break the cycle of saline land degradation exacerbated by very dry or drought conditions. Two key drivers of soil salinity were addressed – dry saline land and Mallee seeps that cause lost production in low rainfall broad acre mixed farming landscapes.   Dry saline…

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RiskWi$e: National Risk Management Initiative – Action Research Groups Eyre Peninsula

RiskWi$e: the National Risk Management Initiative (NRMI) is a GRDC initiative extending over five years that aims to understand and improve risk-reward outcomes for Australian grain growers through participatory action research (PAR). Explicitly the NRMI aims to: 1. Develop an improved understanding of the risk-reward relationships for important on-farm management practices and decisions 2. Inform…

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Enterprise choice and sequence strategies that drive sustainable and profitable southern Australian farming systems

Southern Farming Systems Project Edillilie Site – Lower Eyre Peninsula Farm profitability can be improved by identifying the factors that drive profit and adopting management that optimises returns and mitigates risks. Growers are under mounting pressure to maintain profitability due to constraints such as input costs, herbicide resistance, declining soil fertility, increasing soil-borne pathogens and…

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AIR EP/SAGIT Lower EP Ag Expo 2022

Lower EP Ag Expo 2022 held on March 8, at Ungarra with 50 people attending. Final report submitted to SAGIT in April 2022.  

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GRDC Hands-on Precision Agriculture Training (HOPAT) project

Summary Assist Pinion Advisory to deliver 2 Precision Ag workshops. Initial PA workshop held at Cleve on 16 Feb 2021, 18 attended. Sent follow-up survey to participants to inform next workshop content. Final workshop held in Cleve 7 September 2021. 4 farmers attended. Dan Adams from Cockaleechie presented on his experiences with PA.

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