Last month, we held our two-part Spring Field Day in partnership with DPIRD’s Merredin Research Station. This annual gathering brought together local farmers for a comprehensive day filled with trial visits, researcher and project updates and plenty of opportunities for networking – all capped off with a sundowner and refreshments to finish a big day out!
The day’s schedule kicked off at our North Baandee WaterSmart Dams project site. We were privileged to hear from UWA researcher Dr. Nik Callow, new researcher Emily and our host farmer, Leigh, who shared valuable insights about the impact of the newer style roaded catchment. Participants also had the opportunity to observe the newly installed concrete blanket first-hand and engage in discussions surrounding engineering and water quality. Now we’re all waiting for the next steps – the WET app – designed to capture and share new and old research.
After a delicious lunch (and coffees!) at the new Merredin Apex Park/Danjoo Waabininy Boodja, where a couple of our key sponsor representatives joined us – Murray from Rabobank and Alana from Australian Grain Technologies, the second part of the day commenced. The afternoon of DPIRD Research Station trial visits was carefully selected with support from our Trials Committee and was packed with valuable takeaways, showcasing the latest advancements and practical applications in locally based agricultural research.
Researcher and project updates included:
- Nitrogen strategies in wheat: Dion Nicol. Profitability of Nitrogen is primarily driven by the grain yield response so this trial was of great interest. Often financial risk assumptions around Nitrogen are made annually and don’t include any carryover of Nitrogen from the previous year. It also aligns with the national RiskWi$e project MADFIG is collaborating on with WANTFA.
- Impact of time of sowing on the management of Spot Form Net Blotch (SFNB) of barley in low rainfall zones of WA, Jason Bradley, Corinne Donovan and Geoff Thomas: Carryover on stubble, continual barley-on-barley cropping,= and lack of genetic disease resistance make SFNB the most common foliar disease in barley across WA, with increased risk due to earlier sowing dates. However, less spring rain in low-rainfall areas means less disease in the upper canopy and new varieties with improved disease resistance can reduce the need for fungicide use.
- WA farming system trial: Dion Nicol, Grace Williams, Rachel Mason, Martin Harries (DPIRD). This is Year 2 of 4 looking at break options, time of sowing and management for maintaining profitability under low Green House Gas (GHG) emission scenarios. More to come on this one!
- Critical temperature and moisture for canola establishment: Bronte Wackett (DPIRD), Andrew Fletcher (CSIRO). Irrigation across a range of sowing dates was the highlight of this national project, especially for Season 2024 in the Merredin district. It included depth, stubble and use of press wheels.
- CSIRO long hypocotyl canola, Andrew Fletcher (CSIRO) and Matthew Nelson (CSIRO): Deep sowing into available soil moisture and stable temperatures is a tactic often used (see our Oats Depth trial), however it’s less effective for Canola. This project aims to transfer long hypocotyl international genes into Australian varieties.
- Effect of mechanical soil amelioration and amendments on Rhizoctonia solani AG8 inoculum and disease, Daniel Huberli: MADFIG members assisted with the first stage of this project and now Daniel is looking further into managing Rhizoctonia – this time at the DRI.
- Long Coleoptile wheat trial, Muhammad Javid and Stephen Davies (DPIRD) Sadly Javid has left Merredin (we wish him all the best), leaving Stephen to travel to us from Geraldton. We looked at this trial at McGinniss’s last year, demonstrating deep ripping and rotary spading. This soil amelioration significantly increased grain yields across all genotypes, however the longer coleoptile Mace-18 Wheat consistently outperformed shorter coleoptile varieties, suggesting longer coleoptile varieties will be a valuable tool on ameliorated soils.
To wrap up the day, we held a relaxing sundowner at the Merredin Bowling Club, where attendees enjoyed refreshments and chatted with researchers including Dr. Richard George – in town for the Merredin Shire’s Desalination plant update (part of the WaterSmart Farm project), adding a perfect finishing touch to the day.
A big thank you goes out to our incredible sponsors – CBH Group, CSBP Fertilisers, Rabobank, AGT, GrainCorp, and Bendigo Bank – whose generous support made this event possible and DPIRD for once again allowing us to visit their Research Station.
Is there something you’d like to see at next year’s event? Please let us know. We already have Lentils on the list!
