farming Archives - MALDI-ID

Farmers feeling the dry start to seeding.

13/06/2019

Although winter might officially be here, this year’s rainfall has been significantly lower than in previous years. The last 6 months have had little to no substantial rainfall leading to almost no moisture in the soil which is leaving farmers concerned. Many across the state have been dry seeding and are not sure how they are going to get through the rest of the season with little rain due in sight — leaving many to create significant changes to the cropping program. According to Wagin Farmer Ben Ball “The way this season is panning out, we are in danger of burning a bit of money.

Mr Ball has had to change his 2019 program to abide by the dry climate. Previously he planned to put in 500 hectares of canola, but with no summer rain, there was no subsoil moisture to be able to put into the growth for the crop. He has had to make dramatic changes to his program as the lack of moisture has deterred him from cropping canola.

Traditionally lupins have always been a consistent part of the program with up to a third of their crop in lupin. Mr Ball says “Lupins don’t like a dry start, finish or frost. When they are good, they are excellent, but when they are poor, they are very poor.” This has led to the demise in hectares they have put in because of the variabilities being too high to crop. With farmers having to dry seed as a result of the lack of rainfall. There are plenty worried about the germination of their crops.

The Bureau of Metrology has predicted a warm and dry winter for the South-East. Which coincides with Grain Industry Association of Western Australia (GIWA) releasing reports saying the intended canola areas had decreased with only 1.4 million hectares of canola production planned. BOM Spokesmen Neil Bennett stated “We’ve had a very dry autumn, but we also had a very dry summer and late spring” “It’s been an exceptionally long dry period and that has meant it is unlike previous years where we have had rainfall in the summer season” “We didn’t see that this year”.

Perth posted its second-driest May on record as it collected 17.8mm. These conditions are certainly putting the pressure on farmers. Welcomed rainfall hit over the weekend which was seen across the Midwest and Wheatbelt including Southern Cross who scored 14.2mm, Cunderdin with 10.5mm and Dalwallinu with 10mm. Luke Rushby from the Wheatbelt who works for CBH said: “Any rain out this way is good for the farmers,”.

Source: Farm Weekly, Dry could see lots of money burnt – Travis King,
ABC, Perth weather shows the second-driest May on record as winter starts with a warm stretch – Irena Ceranic

More good news on chickpea popularity

18/03/2019

The popularity of chickpeas is on the rise in the US.

Not only is it a very versatile and tasty legume, but according to The Atlantic roasted and spiced chickpeas are also a healthier alternative to fried potato chips.

For many more exciting examples of how versatile chickpeas and legumes are check out the article here.

Demonstration of legumes for reliable profitability in the western region

13/09/2018

LIEBE Group members and partners faced the wet and wild conditions last week to expand their knowledge of assimilating legumes into their farming enterprises.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation project involved a demonstration of legumes for reliable profitability in the western region, aiming to provide growers with access to agronomy packages for pulses/legumes for their own farms to determine if particular legumes are profitable in their system.

Liebe Group research and development coordinator Alana Hartley and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) agronomist Martin Harries presented to the group, noting the key agronomic challenges and opportunities that exist with the crop types.

Mr Harries also showcased the legume variety trial and DPIRD’s variety trial site, which included Bolt, Hurricane and Jumbo2 lentil varieties.

The field walk concluded with Elders Scholz Rural agronomist Clare Johnston taking growers through a demonstration of Adama’s Veritas product, which is a foliar disease control option for field peas and other legume crops.

The Crop Sequencing Workshop, delivered by Farmanco as part of the same GRDC-funded project, ran in Carnamah on Friday, August 31, followed by a field walk to the legume demonstration site at the Bowman’s property.

The workshop provided knowledge and skills to assess the risks and rewards of trying different break crops/rotations on-farm and understanding what tools are available to help growers get the best out of their system.

You can check out more of the Liebe Group Legume Demonstration sites, with a pop-up field walk at Koorda on Wednesday, September 19th, from 3 pm.

The Liebe Group Agricultural Research and Education Facility was officially opened on Thursday, August 9 and was made possible with funding from the National Stronger Regions Fund, Regional Grants Scheme. GRDC Infrastructure Grant and the Liebe Group members, partners and supporters.
Located at 17 Johnston Street, Dalwallinu.

Learn how our legume kits can increase your crop/pasture performance.

Source: Farm Weekly

Image courtesy of Liebe Group

New research for production of chickpeas

31/08/2018

A multi-nation research collaboration is hoping to unlock valuable new opportunities for the production of chickpeas in Australia.

Researchers supported by GRDC have collected and multiplied wild chickpea species located in the Middle East to build a special genetic resource from which important traits are being screened.

Researches are hoping for a possible incorporation into a new disease-resistant, stress-tolerant, high-yielding varieties for Australian growers.

Dr Francis Ogbonnaya, GRDC pulses and oilseeds manager, says the research is likely to lead to an expansion of Australia’s chickpea production area, particularly in regions where opportunities to grow chickpeas have been limited due to the availability of lines tolerant to constraints such as acidic soils, abiotic stresses and disease stresses.

Chickpeas are Australia’s most valuable cash crop

Dr Ogbonnaya explains the importance of chickpeas in Australia, “…they play an important role in terms of overall optimisation and sustainability of our farming systems.”

“They act as a break crop for cereal rotations, they add nitrogen to the soil, assist with weed control and add market diversity.”

The new research aims to help farmers who have previously had difficulty growing chickpeas due to the narrow genetic base of the domesticated chickpea.

Growth for WA

In Western Australia 2017, only 5000 hectares were planted to chickpeas because of the lack of chickpeas adapted to acidic soils.

“If growers had access to varieties with acid tolerance – and evidence is showing those traits exist in the wild material we now have available – the area planted to chickpeas in the west could potentially grow to about 500,000 hectares. Growers would have a valuable break-crop alternative to lupins.”

Wild Genetic Material

CSIRO ecophysiologist, Dr Jens Berger, says

“I am optimistic that we captured the adaptive diversity needed to improve the performance of cultivated species.”

The wild genetic material is being screened for traits such as tolerance to acidic soils, drought, heat and cold, water use efficiency and resistance to diseases such as ascochyta blight, Phytophthora root rot and root lesion nematodes.

Participating in the work are several of GRDC’s Australian research partners including the Centre for Crop and Disease Management; Murdoch University.

Climate change: Planning for future farming

16/08/2018

Climate change is causing everyone to plan ahead for the future.

Experimenting with new ideas is important so we can better understand what will work in the future.

For decades farmers have been dealing with heat waves, flooding, droughts and extreme colds. We can only expect these issues to continue into the future.

Paul Blackwell, retired from CSIRO and DAFWA, has a few suggestions and guidelines that may work for farmers in a Controlled Traffic Farming (CFA) framework.

Heat Stress

Low rainfall crops can be diminished by approximately one-third for every degree above 35 degrees per day of flowering.

The following strategies may help reduce heat stress:

By orientating the rows and tramlines north-south or NW-SE you can allow more of the afternoon’s sun between the rows and not on the crop.
Burying topsoil and appropriate organic matter in the subsoil can help cool the heads of flowering crops and pastures by encouraging root density in the subsoil.

Cold Stress (radiation frost)

It may be possible to increase canopy temperature on cold nights (following sunny afternoons) if sunlight can heat the soil between rows and be released to warm the crop later at night. Guidelines of north-south to NW-SE orientations, wide rows and stubble apply.

Extreme Dry (after summer rain)

Verified by good soil modelling and experimental investigations by The University of Western Australia, Paul Blackwell explains the importance of moisture;

“Keep the subsoil moisture in better with a less compact profile to wick away the moisture and protective stubble to minimise evaporation. Do early sowing between or next to rows to help conserve that benefit. Also, employ dry ridges of non-wetting sand between rows to further lower summer evaporation rates by using smart furrow sowing.”

Extreme Wet

Apply safe surface drainage with peak stubble levels,
Use slow overland flow along tramlines
Furrows with less than 3 percent slope
Create drive-through drains in complex slope systems for safer water disposal.

These ideas have been backed by farmers and consultants in the southern WA Wheatbelt.

Some of these ideas are being tried at Anthill Farm, Dartmoor.

Image source: farmweekly.com.au

Source: Farm Weekly

Feature image source: abc.net.au

Wheat variety should be carefully selected after big chickpea years

09/08/2018

An accumulation of root lesion nematode populations under heavy and successive chickpea plantings is pushing farmers to make sure their rotations include resistant crops, which will lower the risk of wheat yield losses.

2016 and 2017 were Australia’s largest ever chickpea plantings and has allowed a growth surge of the Pratylenchus thornei root nematode (RLN), commonly found in Queensland and NSW.

Although damaging populations of the parasite can affect wheat yields by up to 80 percent, nematologist Kirsty Owen, University of Queensland, says farmers can follow some steps to reduce impact.

Owen explains that increasing the number of resistant crops in the cropping sequence is the only way to reduce populations.

“One approach is to pick wheat varieties that are tolerant and have the highest level of resistance available to P.thonei because it is when P.thornei populations are reduced to very low levels that crop variety choice is expanded and farm profits can be maximised.”

Kirsty Owen continues to explain that growing chickpeas will increase the populations of P.thornei, which will infest following crops but chickpea varieties may not always suffer yield loss.

The volume of wheat yield loss by P.thornei depends on the population at the time of planting and the tolerance of the wheat variety sown.

Image source: Unsplash.com

A population of two P.thornei to one gram of soil is assumed damaging and will limit the number of varieties and crop types that are likely to be profitable, particularly in the northern region.

“You will have fewer choices in future seasons if the P.thornei population gets to damaging levels.”

P.thornei feeds on and reproduces in the roots of plants, causing yield loss because it restricts plants’ ability to take up water and nutrients.

**There is currently no registered chemical that can reduce P.thornei populations.**

Experiments by the crop nematology team at Formartin, on the Darling Downs, tested the tolerance and resistance of chickpea varieties compared to wheat varieties.

During 2015-16, varieties or advanced lines of chickpeas were planted into plots with high or low P.thornei populations, prepared the year earlier by growing a moderately resistant wheat variety and a susceptible wheat variety.

The average (2015-16) yield for all chickpea varieties at 2.59t/ha was 6.5 percent lower on the high P.thornei populations. There were no major differences detected between varieties.

Owen says that “the take-home message is that chickpeas are generally moderately tolerant to P.thornei”

After harvest P.thornei populations increased by 1.3 to 4.3 times under chickpeas and ten times the amount under Strzelecki wheat when compared with the population of the moderately-resistant wheat control.

Image source: Unsplash.com

Source: GRDC

Delayed Lupin flowering important to increase yield.

19/07/2018

UWA postgraduate student, Candy Taylor, recently delivered her thesis on lupin flowering times at the University of WA’s Frontiers in Agriculture showcase.

During the presentation, Ms Taylor highlights that Australia accounts for 51% of the global 1.3 million tonnes of Lupin production. And Western Australia produces a staggering 70 – 80% of Australia’s lupins.

Lupins tend to flourish in the Northern Wheatbelt thanks to the short seasons. Because of the Lupins early flowering time, parts of WA don’t capitalise on later season rains which are perfect for lupin crop.

Image source: www.freenatureimages.eu

Ms Taylor has concluded that by delaying the flowering time of a narrowed leaf lupin for 22 days, you could increase yield by up to 16%.

Whereas, the best delay of flowering for high rainfall areas to boost yield is 18 days.

Click here to learn how our RHIZO-ID kits can help increase your legume yield.

How RHIZO-ID can increase crop yield or pasture performance

02/07/2018

Knowing if your legumes contain the correct rhizobia, and if the rhizobia is working the way it should be to increase crop yield or pasture performance is vital.

What do you need to know about legumes?

Legume roots produce a natural fertilizer.

The nodules that form on the roots of legumes contain rhizobia bacteria.

For the rhizobia bacteria to take nitrogen from the air and produce ammonia (fertilizer) it is important to know if the correct rhizobia is in your legumes.

Did you know?

The Australian agriculture industry uses 5.3 million tons of fertilizer each year! Legume roots are a sustainable farming fertilizer.

A successful farmer does two things very well:

First, they reduce their environmental impact as much as possible.

Second, they find cost-effective farming methods which transcends into increased yields.

So, how exactly do we help farmers achieve these two things?

With the power of science and our easy to use RHIZO-ID kits, we can identify what type of rhizobia is in your legume root nodules to improve production.

What do you need to do?

All you need to do is order a RHIZO-ID kit from our website or through our distributors.

1 kit is sufficient for the analysis of one legume species.

Each kit contains four sample bags.

Simply send in roots from four different locations in a 100-hectare paddock and we will begin the analysis.

It really is that easy.

We are trusted leaders in the farming industry:

Our kits are sold through leading farming organisations such as;

ALOSCA Technologies, CSBP, Elders, and Landmark.

What’s our method?

Traditional ways to identify root nodules include growing the bacteria. This method can be time-consuming, labour intensive and expensive for farmers.

Here’s the deal:

We have combined an innovative method which incorporates both previous methods to save time and money for farmers, whilst being environmentally friendly.

Our scientific-led research team use a mass spectrometer machine and genetic sequencing of protein markers to detect and identify the different strains and their unique fingerprints.

We generate a fingerprint of root nodules and then we compare that fingerprint with the database that we have comprised of the current rhizobia inoculants.

This means that there will be less fertilizer needed because nitrogen from the legume is put into the ground and it’s available for (wheat or barley) crop after the legume component.