Research
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,…
Soil extension support for extreme weather recovery areas of Eastern Eyre Peninsula
Summary Farmers affected by the extreme weather events were invited to express their interest in accessing technical support, soil testing and extension activities with a focus on production outcomes. Support was provided on a ‘first in first served’ basis, until the funds were fully allocated. The funding allows for approximately farm soil tests, technical support…
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…
Pasture optimisation for drought solutions
Project Summary The PODS (Pasture Optimisation for Drought Solutions) project focused on evaluating mixed legume pasture cultivars to improve drought resilience in South Australia’s low to medium rainfall zones, with the Low Rainfall zones featured on Eyre Peninsula. Across 11 sites-including three large-scale (10 ha) serradella trials and one small plot trial at Darke Peak-researchers…
Better summer weed management decisions in Southern and Western Australia
Summary The summer weed app, created to assist with summer weed management decisions under GRDC project DAW00257, will be calibrated using field trials and user tested to estimate economic returns from controlling summer weed populations.
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…
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…
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…
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…
SA Drought Hub Tools for pasture forecasting
Summary A desktop review of all pasture forecasting and pasture measurement tools for primary producers available in Australia. Identify tools that have potential for use in the high rainfall zone of South Australia, but that may not be available or may not be calibrated in these areas, and what would be required to make them…