Project Overview

Investment:

GRDC

Primary Research Advisor:

Southern Dirt & Stirlings to Coast Farmers

Project Duration:

Two years (2018-2019) Project Extension for SCF

Project Host(s):
  • Simon Zacher – Muradup
  • Matt Rigby – Frankland

Project Aim

To enable growers to make timely and efficient decisions in the Albany and Esperance port zones by having a rule of thumb around the cost/benefit of feeding N to crops on waterlogging soils.

Preliminary Findings:

The treatments for these trials were Nil nitrogen, grower timing and rate of N (NApp1), 100 kg after water logging events (NApp2), N to feed rainfall limited potential of crop according to phenology (100 units total split into 3) (NApp3) and N to feed rainfall limited potential of crop after each waterlogging event/s per grower timing (100 units total) (NApp4).

The Frankland trial showed no significant differences in yield between treatments.

At Muradup the statistics showed there was a significant difference in yield in the NApp3 and NApp4 treatments compared to the nil, NApp1 and NApp2 treatments. On average the yield of NApp3 and NApp4 treatments were 1 t/ha higher compared to the other treatments. The Muradup site responded to split applications of N compared to single N applications even at higher rates.