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Summer Cropping in the Riverine Plains
Irrigated summer crops were once a common sight throughout the region, however the recent shortage of irrigation water has seen plantings plummet.
To examine whether dryland summer crops may in fact be a viable alternative, Riverine Plains Inc in conjunction with the National Water Commissions’ ‘Farms, Rivers, Markets’ project at the University of Melbourne’s Dookie College, will assess the potential of a range of summer crops and the effect they have on the following wheat crop.
The trial is looking at 6 options – safflower, sunflowers, white French millet, lab lab, mung beans and a stubble fallow. It will focus mostly on grain production, although crops that don't make it to harvest will be brown manured (sprayed out in the autumn).
Dryland summer crops may be a viable option where a wet autumn means paddocks can’t be sown (not a bad problem to have!) or where resistant ryegrass needs to be controlled through a winter fallow (not a good problem to have!).
The trial was run in a 30ha paddock on Neville, Wendy and David Cook’s property at Pine Lodge South, east of Shepparton.
The paddock had a standing stubble (3t/ha wheat 2008) with 65cm subsoil moisture at the end of September and was sown with a disc opener (Cross Slot). The trial is fully replicated, with 3 replicates of 1.35ha (500m x 27m) for each treatment.
The paddock was soil surveyed (70m grid) and has 3 dominant EM zones. Moisture probes in each crop will look at moisture use during the season and also on the following wheat crop. Measuring the water holding capacity and crop water use will give a better understanding of the yield potential across the different soil types. While there is plenty of interest in variable rate application (VRA) for N and P, possibly the biggest driver for VRA is in understanding inherent soil-type variation and determining how water holding capacity can be measured across a paddock.
For more information on the early results from this trial please visit:
http://www.frm.unimelb.edu.au/_pages/summercropping.html
Photos of the plots plus agronomic info to be provided at various stages throughout the season the plots plus agronomic info.
