• Trial showed legumes to be more susceptible to frosts and high temperatures during flowering than cereals and canola.
• When legumes grain prices are high, the revenues derived are competitive with conventional crops such as wheat, barley and canola.
• Growers can improve the agronomic skills required to successfully grow legume crops on their farms very quickly.
• Ongoing research and demonstration work are required to continue driving grower adoption of legume crops in Western Australia. Increased cropping diversity is an ongoing ambition for the entire grains industry.

Soil amelioration is a vital part of farming systems in Albany Port Zone to overcome soil constraints, which limit crop yields. 

The ripping treatments resulted in minimal yield beinifits in the Tenterden and Darakan sites, due to the high gravel content in the soil, which limited compaction.

Ripping treatemtns at the Bromehill site resulted in significantly higher yields in 2018 and 2019 comapared to the untreated control (UTC), however the treatments failed too yielded significantly better then the UTC, in 2020. 

The Kojaneerup sandplain trial site was highly responsive to deep ripping to 50cm in 2020 after clay spreading. 

 

The growing season rainfall in 2019 was below average at Perillup, and the summer cropping demonstration did not suffer from water-logging.

Grain growers in this region believe that the soil drying effects from growing summer crops has the greatest potential benefit to winter cropping yields.

In 2019, there was a 770kg/ha barley yield increase above the control from the plots where cowpea was grown in the summer.

There was a 470kg/ha decline in winter barley yield in the plot that was planted to canola between January 30 and May 9, 2019.

Nutritional requirements of summer crops need to be considered when selecting species. Cowpeas fixed useful nitrogen in the 90 growing days.

• The ‘farmer practice’ strategy ultimately ended up being the best nitrogen strategy for the 2019 season. The crop responded to the applied n up front after good rainfall and resulted in a 5.43 tonne yield and achieved a good return on investment.
• It is likely the crops in 2019 achieved its water limiting yield potential due to the dry finish; therefore, more nitrogen did not improve yield.
• Despite the treatments that received additional N achieving a higher wheat grade, the cost of applying the N in a season with decile 8 pricing, actually reduced profits.
• Growers remain interested in this research and would like to see further results from tactical N applications, especially in wet years and more waterlogged conditions.

• Effect of location: A 30km distance North from the south coast within the HRZ, proposed as the ‘Chillinup  Line,’ appears to be a critical agronomic cut off point for where the risk of downgrade or failure to meet specification is manageable. Noodle Wheat can be grown more successfully North of the ‘Chillinup line’, 30 km inland from the South Coast and East and West of the Stirling Ranges yet still in the HRZ.

• Three seeding systems, disc (slot), tyne and tyne-after cultivation were tested over two  seasons in a paddock with a long history of minimal soil disturbance. Soil water repellence, plant establishment and yield were compared.
• In the wet 2016 season, the effect of soil water repellence was minimal and soil disturbance caused by disc, tyne or tyne-after-cultivation did not significantly affect plant establishment or yield.
• In the dry 2017 season, plant establishment and yield of field peas was higher in the disc seeder treatment than the tyne or tyne-after-cultivation treatment.

• The deep ripping site at Kojaneerup showed no consistent canola yield response in 2017
• Two consecutive frosts and extreme rainfall in late September reduced yield potential.
• Small differences in yield were not consistent within yield zones nor replicates.

• Snails may be detected in grain as it is being harvested using a mobile phone mounted in the bin.
• Mobile phones can be programmed to detect snails on the ground using WheelCam
• Time lapse photography and analysis can be used to study the behaviour of snails over many months.
• Nozzle choice can help deposit sprays where the snails are located around the time of spraying.

• Yield premium for Long season wheat varieties April sown vs May sown was 920 Kg/Ha
• SCF dual purpose/dual use long season HRZ wheat production package is being upgraded with each year’s research and case studies (2016-2019)
• Product testing for flour blend characteristics and feed qualities such as metabolisable energy in progress
• CBH trial offer for dual purpose/dual use long season wheat

• Small pointed snails are an increasing problem in the Albany and Esperance port zones.
• A grower survey shows that while many farmers engage in a snail baiting program, 60% of these are unsure as to the efficacy of baiting on small pointed conical snail control.
• Caged trials show that all active ingredients in snail baits cause mortality to snails, however the amount of active ingredient has no effect on the rate of mortality, it is the number of bait points that has the most impact on numbers of snails killed.
• There is no difference in the efficacy of a rainfast versus a non-rainfast bait. However, caged trials suggest that non-rainfast baits lose their integrity after 14 days.

• Growing Noodle wheat has been perceived as high risk by growers in the High Rainfall Zone (HRZ) due to the risk of not making ANW1 grade. There are, however, some specialist noodle wheat growers in the HRZ who consistently make better than Mace yields and achieve ANW1 for almost all grain produced. The reasons for this are guiding the HRZ Noodle wheat production package.
• A 30km distance from the south coast within the HRZ, proposed as the ‘Chillinup Line,’ appears to be a critical agronomic cut off point for where the risk of downgrade (or failure to meet specification) is more manageable.
• The 2017 prototype HRZ Noodle Wheat production package is an upgrade on the 2016 version using the project’s trial results and other research and experience by the SCF R&D team in consultation with key stakeholders.
• Intergrain and AEGIC are helping refine the HRZ Noodle Wheat production package to meet market specifications for Noodles and the other alternative products being tested by AEGIC.
• Grower groups recognise that differentiated products aid price stability in times of relative grain oversupply and higher competition. For example, grain for Udon Noodle wheat markets and other specialist new markets are less to be affected by downward price pressures than undifferentiated grade wheat prices.

• The MLA trials demonstrated that early summer seeding (January) of Serradella pod was a viable option. The summer sowing of Serradella pod has outperformed the twin sowing methods in the two trials conducted by SCF growers
• The current district practice of dry seeding pasture seed in Autumn on sandplain soils has severe limitations compared to summer pod sowing or seeding when soil is moist after full seasonal break. This was confirmed in the 2014 season in the MLA trial where the second time of sowing (into moist soil) outperformed the first time of sowing in total legume biomass production and this advantage has carried right through to seed set in Year 3 (in M1 trial Santorini and Margurita plots).
• The performance of a precision seeder for sowing Serradella in a 2015 trial demonstrated that modifications of conventional seeding systems could improve plant establishment efficiency by more that 35%.
• The hard seeded Serradellas are performing well in specific treatments in the MLA trials even on the lower fertility, acidic and non-wetting sandplain soils. Mixed maturity Serradellas like cv Margurita lose significant pod set with spraytopping ryegrass compared to Cadiz or Santorini.

UWA trials on an MLA funded project showed that using more disease-resistant or disease-tolerant cultivars across Australia in 2015 and 2016 significantly increased plant productivity by up to 4 to 5-fold. This opportunity to identify cultivar resistances and cultivar field tolerances to the soil borne pathogen complex offers the best and most cost-effective, long term, and economically feasible means of managing damping-off and root diseases in subterranean clover across southern Australia. However, despite this tremendous opportunity to benefit producers, this opportunity is unlikely to be realised unless there is ongoing commitment by Industry funding to support such an approach and to realise this potential.

• No significant yield differences between seeders were recorded. This result could be misleading according to Andrew Slade.
• The analysed data indicates that Andrew Slade’s seeding system achieved significantly less protein than the other two farmers set-up.
• The raw means indicate there is still a likely difference between Slade’s and the other two farmers.
• This difference is possibly explained by the higher yields achieved by the Slade’s seeding system.
• Note: Statistical analysis not yet completed on replicates two and three.

Results indicate that Uniform significantly improved crop yields in a second-year barley crop and in a wet season; in dry years’ root diseases such as rhizoctonia generally have even greater effects on grain yield and quality.

• Barley leaf rust (LR) was observed on barley regrowth in the lower Great Southern and South Coast of WA in the summer/autumn of 2016. This contributed to the first observations of infected barley crops in the region in July 2016. All barley varieties including those with Adult Plant Resistance (APR) were under severe disease pressure and responded to application of fungicide.
• The high levels of LR in 2016 and the possibility of barley regrowth in autumn 2017 means a significant LR risk for the 2017 season and fungicide programs for APR varieties should be considered.
• LR is a social disease and all growers should be proactive in eliminating the volunteer barley green bridge. To minimise early onset of LR, the regrowth barley should be eliminated at least 4 weeks before seeding.
• Star of Bethlehem (an alternate host) should be sprayed to eliminate the likelihood of new pathotype developing in the region.
• Selecting varieties with adult plant resistance genes will reduce grain yield loss. However, performance of these varieties against LR is influenced by seasonal weather, time of disease onset, crop agronomy, and is hard to predict season to season. Depending on the LR pressure in the crop they may need early foliar fungicide intervention to reduce development of disease on plants during the growing season.
• Oxford possess two partial resistance genes (Rph20 and Rph24), and under high LR pressure application of foliar fungicides increased yield up to 64 per cent.

This project is providing a focus on pasture species, inoculation, weed control and overall management together with the crop nitrogen benefits and crop responses. This project is a large-plot Development and Extension project, part of a much broader effort of many industry participants in developing new pasture systems in crop rotations.