A Mudamuckla farmer will host a field day on his property on Monday to demonstrate opportunities available to local graingrowers to improve their farming systems.
Incorporation of legume break crops – such as lentils and vetch – into cropping rotations will be a focus of Peter Kuhlmann’s field day, which will also highlight the importance of harvest weed seed capture in the fight against herbicide resistant weeds.
Speaking at the field day will be SARDI vetch breeder Stuart Nagel and University of Adelaide’s Nitrogen Fixation Program senior extension officer Maarten Ryder.
Mr Kuhlmann, a GRDC Southern Regional Panel member, says he is hosting the field day to encourage his peers to explore options which offer the potential for increased productivity, profitability and sustainability in marginal cropping areas.
“Lack of reliable break crops and herbicide resistance are among the challenges confronting grain growers in this low rainfall region,” he said.
“But new crop varieties, new knowledge and innovation in farm practices – much of which is being generated out of GRDC-funded research and development – are providing growers with avenues for improvement of their enterprises.”
Mr Kuhlmann’s success this year with a new vetch variety is likely to be of particular interest to local farmers.
“Vetch has grown well on our grey calcareous soils for the past two years, and this year I added a new early-maturing variety called Volga, which has grown quite well,” he said.
The variety was produced through SARDI’s national vetch breeding program.
Vetch is a multi-purpose crop that can be used as grain, grazing, hay production or as a green manure and its benefits in low rainfall farming systems will be outlined at the field day by Mr Nagel.
“For a long time we have been seeking a low rainfall legume as an alternative to medic, and this need has become even more important now that we are growing higher yielding cereals more intensively,” Mr Kuhlmann said.
“We are looking for a profitable break crop that will not host cereal root diseases and add lots of nitrogen into the system. There is concern about how well medics are nodulating and the impact of powdery mildew.”
The importance of nodulation in delivering nitrogen to cropping soils will be discussed at the field day by Dr Ryder.
Tackling herbicide resistance through driving down the weed seed bank at harvest will be another topic of considerable local relevance at the field day.
Mr Kuhlmann has recently invested in a chaff cart to assist in management of the weed seed bank and this piece of equipment will be on display.
“Maintaining grass weed control in crops is an ongoing and expensive issue and in a no-till farming system chemicals are the main method of control,” he said.
“But we can’t rely on chemicals alone, especially with the increasing levels of herbicide resistance.
“Harvest weed seed management is an important method to assist in weed control and we will use a chaff cart this coming harvest to allow us to capture and destroy weed seeds.”
A restored two million litre water tank with a sheeted catchment will be another item of interest on the day.
Mr Kuhlmann and his staff have restored the old government tank at Puntabie and are adding a plastic sheeted catchment to harvest the rain water.
“The catchment area is one hectare and the main tank will hold almost 2mL,” he said.
“This will provide good quality water for spraying and stock.”
The field day will begin at 1pm at sheds on Mr Kuhlmann’s property.
- Details: Peter Kuhlmann 0428 258 032
