• Early sown Planet with a plant population of 200 pl/m2 was the highest yielding treatment.
• Increased plant populations were not shown to significantly increase yields.
• Early sowing times showed a significantly higher yield results (p=0.05) however this results could be influenced by frost events.

• PBA Samira and PBA Zahra have consistently been among the highest yielding commercial entries at teh Westmere site in 2015-17, out-yielding older faba bean varieties.
• There is a continued improvement in yield of faba bean linies with teh top breeding lines out-yielding current varieties at the Westmere site in 2015-17
• Seed wt was lower in 2017 than 2016 and this is most likely due to lower rainfall during the seed development phase in 2017.

• New late maturing non-commercial lines were amongst the highest yielding, with yields greater than 6 t/ha.
• The winter-spring crosses K50058 and K50058 and winter types AGF437 and AGF484 have performed consistently well across a number of seasons at Hamilton and Inverleigh.
• Optimising sowing times may provide additional yield increases.
• High yields were achieved from poor plant establishment numbers, showing that canola has the ability to compensate from low plant numbers if the seasonal conditions are favourable.

While the idea of early timings for improved tillering and survival of the key primary tillers was not necessarily any worse or better
than standard timings in 2016, when applying this practice into a large farming system the cost of doing two nitrogen applications
does need to be taken into account.

• Earlier times of sowing for barley in the HRZ can have many advantages, but should be carefully weighed up in terms of added costs involved with an earlier time of sowing
• Westminster was once again a standout variety across all sowing dates, performing well in both April sown and May sown conditions
• The use of PGRs can significantly reduce the height of early sown crops, and significantly improve yields across all varieties

• Incorporation of lime has not shown a yield response above that of surface applied lime in the first year with wheat or canola in a wet year.
• Acid layers exist within soils and are mainly confined within the topsoil on basalt soils and can extend deeper in other soil types.
• Sampling soil in 5 cm increments is useful for identifying exactly where acidity is the profile so that lime can be potentially incorporated within the acid area.
• Surface-applied lime takes time to move down the soil profile and ameliorate acidity.
• To minimise yield losses where acidity issues exist (pH less than 5.0), sow acid tolerant cereals (eg. wheat) following liming or look to incorporate lime. 

• Very high yields achieved in faba bean breeding trial in South Western Victoria in 2016
• New PBA faba bean varieties have higher yields than older varieties
• A high level of fungal disease developed in 2016 and a proactive fungicide program is required to manage faba beans in high rainfall districts 

• Grazing did not change grain yield in 2015 or 2016. Variety selection was the most important factor for final yield, particularly with the soft finish in 2016.
• Grazing slows crop maturity by one to two weeks, which meant Revenue (long season variety) was still booting during the October heat wave in 2015. In 2016, grazing lengthened the growing season for Bolac (mid-season variety) with a resulting 0.54 t/ha (NS) yield increase.
• To graze without yield loss, it’s important to start planning from the beginning of the season, e.g. early sowing of long season varieties. 

• Annual ryegrass (ARG) establishment and seed head numbers increased significantly under the faba bean herbicide strategies used in 2016
• There were no significant differences between herbicide strategies in 2016, with the legacy of past years’ management strategies not creating any difference in yields this year
• Over the five years of the trial, RT Canola in 2014 was been the best option to maintain ARG seed head numbers
• ARG seed head numbers increased by 35% in 2016 following the high cost weed strategy (strategy C) in combination with HWS prototype mill
• ARG seed head numbers increased by 148% (low cost, strategy A) and 171% (mid cost, strategy B) in 2016
• Effects of pre-harvest desiccations in 2016 will not be evidenced until emergence in 2017 

• There was a wide range in crop maturities with up to 50 days difference in date of first flower
• Several lines had flowering dates which fell between the commercially available spring and winter types
• Yields of up to 7 t/ha were achieved at Inverleigh and 6.6 t/ha at Hamilton
• Many of the lines not commercially available to growers outperformed the commercial varieties
• Lines with mid-season maturities may be suited to a wide range of locations in the HRZ 

• Lime quality is affected mainly by its neutralising value and particle size and solubility plays a minor role affecting performance in the first 6 to 12 months
• A high quality lime has a NV above 90% and contains a high proportion of particle sizes less than 0.1 mm
• There are calculators available that can help growers compare the cost effectiveness of limes 

• Surface applied liming will only move to address subsurface acidity if pH(Ca) in the topsoil is kept greater than 5.5
• Surface applied lime movement is very slow and may take many years to treat subsurface acidity
• Check the plant back period for legumes if using sulphonyl urea herbicides as surface applied liming makes the pH level in the top 2.5 cm high and will affect its break down 

• Prices for faba beans have remained very high compared with long term averages, enhancing the profitability of faba beans. Growers always need to be aware of possible price swings as the international market is limited. The potential return for the crop should be based on longer term pricing between $300 and $400/ t.
• New varieties, PBA Zahra and PBA Samira, offer significantly improved grain yield (>10%) and disease resistance compared with older varieties.
• Sowing early is essential to maximise benefits to the farming system from improved biomass and grain yield to maximise profitability.
• Good disease management is critical to maximise grain yield and quality. Growers are encouraged to carefully plan their strategies, regularly monitor crops and have fungicide purchased in advance, to ensure appropriate timing of application.

• Clethodim sprayed with medium droplets provided better control of annual ryegrass (ARG) than very coarse droplets when at the 4 leaf growth stage of the weed
• Clethodim effectively controlled ARG at mid-tiller and late-tiller growth stage, irrespective of nozzle type
• Delaying spraying until ARG is at late-tiller stage may compromise canola yield 

• Surface applied liming will only move to address subsurface acidity if pH(Ca) in the topsoil is kept greater than 5.5
• Surface applied lime movement is very slow and may take many years to treat subsurface acidity
• Check the plant back period for legumes if using sulphonyl urea herbicides as surface applied liming makes the pH level in the top 2.5 cm high and will affect its break down 

• Early sown (10th April) SQP Revenue was significantly more responsive than Manning to a programme of agrichemicals for foliar disease and Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus control (BYDV)
• Ungrazed SQP Revenue gave a significant 0.66 t/ha response to a two spray fungicide programme and a further 0.28 t/ha response to an additional insecticide programme for BYDV control, compared to a maximum response of 0.39 t/ha for both fungicide and insecticide for Manning
• Simulated grazing did not significantly reduce yield with either cultivar and gave an average dry matter benefit of 1.89 t/ha with laxed grazing at GS16 & GS30 and 2.39 t/ha with laxed grazed followed by a hard grazing at the GS30
• Leaf rust Puccinia triticina which was the principal disease in the trial was at significantly higher levels in SQP Revenue than Manning and required two foliar fungicides to give control
• In SQP Revenue grazing was not an effective control measure for leaf rust control compared to an early GS31 fungicide when assessed at flag leaf
• At the Westmere site, simulated grazing reduced grain yield by 0.2-0.5 t/ha compared to 1.7 t/ha dry matter removed by grazing
• Low levels of disease at this site did not allow the hypothesis that grazing reduces disease pressure to be tested. 

• Grazing did not change grain yield or quality. Rather, moisture stress was more important in a dry finish
• In a dry year, the ratio of grain yield to crop biomass at flowering is 0.40. In an average year it is around 0.55
• Grazing slows crop maturity by one to two weeks, which meant Revenue (long season variety) was still booting during the October heat wave 

• The omission (absence) of nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser inputs at the Inverleigh canola trial site caused a statistically significant reduction in canola grain yield
• Visual biomass differences at the Glenthompson wheat site were noted during the season, but did not translate to yield
• Low rainfall and high temperatures in the 2015 spring reduced the response of crops to the presence or absence of nutrients

• Continuous cropping is not an effective way to manage herbicide resistant annual ryegrass over the long term in the high rainfall zone.
• The increase in weed numbers over time can be slowed by adopting an intensive and high cost herbicide strategy, but not enough to reduce soil weed seed bank.
• Increasing annual ryegrass density by 100 seed heads per square meter was associated with a 150 kg/ha decrease in grain yield. 

• Crops can be established and grown in 6.6 t/ha of retained stubble in the HRZ without compromising establishment
• Stubble retention in the HRZ requires careful systems based planning and attention to detail
• Seasonal conditions will strongly influence outcomes of stubble retention through factors such as pest pressure and conserving soil moisture
• Burning may not be an option in the near future because of unacceptable risks of litigation 

• Dry conditions reduced the severity of septoria tritici blotch.
• Timing of fungicide application did not affect (p<0.05) grain yield or quality.
• Consider using seed or fertiliser fungicide treatment when grazing wheat early in the season.
• Multiple fungicide applications using different active groups will reduce the risk of fungicide resistance developing in Zymoseptoria tritici.
• Grazing can add feed value to the wheat crop and reduce disease pressure. 

• There was significant variation for many of the parameters measured between seeders
• Lowest variation was for disc and tyne parallelogram setups – JD disc, Boss, Equalizer
• Discs were more consistent for seed depth
• Seeder setup, operation and monitoring is critical to success
• Low NDVI areas were the highest yielding
• The selection, setting up, monitoring and operating of seeders is vital in capitalising on machine design features 

• Slugs are a major pest for emerging canola crops in the high rainfall zone (HRZ)
• Detection across large areas is difficult from the ground
• Remote plant counts can be produced using images collected by drones
• Information can be returned to the grower within five days
• Only two out of every five days had suitable flying conditions, causing image collection to be delayed

• Soil acidity cost $170/ha to $228/ha alone in yield penalties in 2015
• Keeping pH at good levels by liming prevents yield penalties
• Increasing soil aluminium levels caused by pH falling below 4.8, provides a good guide to the likely yield penalties incurred 

• The profitability of any crop is highly sensitive to changes in both yield and price. In past Crop Challenges, cost of production ($/t) and crop yield (t/ha) have been strong indicators of financial return. On average, these indicators have been able to predict 75-90% of the variation in gross margin.
• In 2014 due to low yields and vastly different cost structures across the teams, yield was a substantially better indicator of final gross margin (see Figure 4 in attached trial report).
   

(i) Rotations are complex and depend on preference, the problem and opportunities- there is no ‘right way’. (ii) The break species can be selected for multiple benefits including grazing value, fodder conservation, nitrogen fixation and improving soil conditions. (iii) If weeds are the problem, focus on targeting the weeds that come late in the season, these are the ones  getting through in a continuous crop rotation. (iv) Weeds can be reduced by up to 90% in two years by stopping weed seed set through fodder removal, while providing ample fodder.

• Sowing mid to late maturing barley varieties in May was pivotal when optimising yield in this trial. May sown varieties yielded 0.6 t/ha more on average over their June sown counterparts.
• Sowing with a lower seeding rate reduced yield and increased protein concentration, with the optimum plant population being 180 pl/m2.
• Navigator had the lowest grain protein at 12.8% when sown at TOS 1 with 180 plants/m2.
• Navigator had the highest grain protein at 14.7% when sown at TOS 2 with 120 plants/m2.
• Navigator had the highest yield of all varieties, at 5.84 t/ha, when sown at TOS 1 with 180 plants/m2.

• Split application of nitrogen at green bud and full flower produced the highest yields.
• The risk of a dry season can be reduced by using split fertiliser timings.
• Applying nitrogen consistently increases levels of protein in canola but reduces oil content.
• Using flutrifaol-treated starter fertiliser and in-crop fungicides increased yields of canola by an average of 0.42 t/ha.
• Fungicide use had no consistent impact on grain quality.
   

• Application of nitrogen fertiliser significantly increased yield compared to no fertiliser.
• Grain protein results suggest that in 2014 nitrogen was not the limiting factor to yield especially at the higher rates; incremental increases in mean grain protein were recorded with each increase in N, up to 300 kg N/ha.
• Variety choice had a significant effect on final grain yield and protein, however individual variety response to applied N rates were relatively similar.
• There was a strong link between N rate and what was left in the soil after harvest, and the higher rates left a considerable amount.
   

• Utilising a pre-emergent herbicide of any kind significantly reduced broadleaf weed establishment overall .
• Terrain and Terrain + Avadex treatments resulted in highest control of fumitory and cleavers.
• No significant difference between pre-emergent herbicides on grass and radish control.
• There was no significant influence of pre-emergent herbicide on yield.
• Untreated and Sakura treated plots had significantly lower protein levels.

(i) The most significant outcome from these trials was the very strong effect of increasing grain protein. In nearly all cases, the higher rate of 50kgN/ha had a more significant effect, as did delaying the timing until GS55. (ii) There were no differences between product type and rate had a small effect. (iii) The higher rate of 50kgN/ha had a higher yield than 25kgN/ha. (iv) For the majority of sites, the key timing that influenced yield was GS39. This timing is slightly later than previously thought suitable for applying N for yield, with GS32 being the recognised standard. The data needs to be interpreted with the 2013 season in mind because a tighter finish in spring could mean plant uptake of late applied N would be limited.

• Sowing winter habit canola early in the autumn can provide grazing and grain yield.
• Garnet sown early can still produce good results.
• In mild weather aphids are a problem longer into the season and possibly sowing a spring variety earlier gives the potential to develop before succumbing to viruses.
   

• Sowing early, grazing the crops and taking through to harvest gives only a small yield penalty.
• Manning has been a strong performer across all three sowing dates.
• With early sowings, more feeding is essential to improve yields at the end of the season.
   

• Winter Graze n Grain Hybrids provide huge yields and multiple cropping and grazing opportunities.
• Hyola® late Spring Super Hi-Biomass Hybrids show very high yield potential in the HRZ with Hyola 725RT and Hyola 600RR topping their respective herbicide technology groups.
• Triazine Hybrids show similar performances and gross returns to the best Clearfield Hybrids and much higher Gross returns $/ha than OP TT varieties especially Hyola 650TT and Hyola 559TT.
• RT® dual herbicide tolerant Hybrids show their $/ha value and as a critical new competitive IWM management tool for all canola growers.
   

• Continuous cropping and a reliance on pre-sowing weed control measures is not an effective way to manage herbicide resistant annual ryegrass over the long term.
• The increase in weed numbers over time can be limited by adopting an intensive and high cost herbicide strategy, but this will not deplete the seed bank.
• Increasing annual ryegrass density was associated with decreased grain yield.

• There were no significant differences in yield between field pea or lupin varieties in 2014.
• The extremely dry spring may have reduced varietal differences in the trials.
• Pea varieties yielded 2.5 t/ha to 2.8 t/ha while lupin varieties yielded 1.7 t/ha to 2.5 t/ha.

• Trojan apparently responded better to 3 Nitrogen applications at GS 31, 33 & 37.
• Revenue yielded most will nil extra Nitrogen, but not significantly better than with 100kg applied urea.
• Higher Nitrogen late increased grain protein across all varieties as expected • Revenue expressed reduced yields at Urea application rates higher than 200kg/Ha.

• In 2013, performance of feed barley varieties was better than malt varieties, on average across both sites.
• Even in 2013’s favourable season, malt varieties failed to make any considerable increases in yield over 2012 whereas feed varieties did increase their yields.
• The feed variety Oxford has yielded consistently well across several years of trial data at SFS and NVT.
• Generally, a narrowing of the spread between feed and malt barley prices means less extra yield is required from feed barley over malt barley for the same gross return.
• In 2013, the additional costs involved in managing feed barley trials were only $50/ha.

• Chickpeas and lentils should be sown in early May to achieve early growth and maximise biomass and yield.
• In 2013 at Westmere, growth was generally slow and lacked vigour, however lentils tolerated some short term waterlogging surprisingly well.
• The larger Kabuli chickpeas, like PBA Monarch, Almaz and Kalkee are likely to be the most profitable options for this region.

• Canola yield was increased and oil % marginally decreased with increasing N rate applied.
• The highest yield (4.2 t/ha) was achieved at the highest N rate (160 kgN/ha).
• With adequate starting soil N (67 kgN/ha) and good spring rain, N application timing made little difference.
• 30% N fertiliser recovery in grain remains a good ‘rule of thumb’ for canola N budgeting.
• Easy N® application shows promise for topping up N at early flower.
   

• Dry sowing before the break limits the possibility of broad spectrum herbicide control of early germinating weeds.
• Annual ryegrass is very competitive if it emerges before or with the crop. Delaying sowing until the first flush of weed seedlings have emerged to allow an effective knockdown with a broad spectrum herbicide is pivotal when sowing into paddocks with a high ryegrass seed bank
• The seed rate and consequently the plant density will most likely not create conditions where the rapid early growth of Revenue will out compete the germinating ryegrass. In this case, the density of plants does not play a significant role in the outcome of weed suppression.
• Application of IBS herbicides (Sakura, Avadex Xtra) lose weed kill effectiveness with extended periods of hot weather and minimal rainfall.

 

• New varieties are likely to offer significant yield improvement in southern Victoria, along with improvements in disease resistance.
• Residual herbicide caused issues in 2013, most likely due to the dry summer of 2012/13.
• Similar to 2012, AF05095 was the highest yielding variety at 3.95 t/ha, 37% higher than Farah.
• Based on yields achieved (3.9 t/ha) beans could have achieved a gross profit of approximately $1300/ha based on management costs of $250/ha and grain price at $400/t.
   

• New varieties of field peas are available for southern Victoria, offering a range of grain types and forage options, associated with excellent yield potential.
• Kaspa continues to perform well with new line OZP1101 consistently producing the highest yields.
• Crop topping saw a yield reduction in most varieties due to crops not being advanced enough when ryegrass was at milky dough stage.
• In 2013, a fortnightly fungicide program proved profitable to control disease in field peas (particularly black spot).
• Sowing earlier has been found to be most profitable in this region, but disease management needs to be a priority.
• Based on yields achieved where disease was managed (4.7 t/ha) peas could have achieved a net profit of approximately $1000/ha based on management costs of $370/ha and grain price at $300/t.