About 70 croppers and industry members gathered in Millicent on Thursday last week for the annual GRDC Hyper Yielding Crops and Pulse Agronomy Field Day.
Facilitated by FAR Australia, the day began with an inspection of the pulse trial sites, with SARDI's Dr Nigel Wilhelm giving an insight into nutritional constraints on highly calcareous soils.
EPAG Research Trust director Andrew Ware then talked the crowd through key management levels for high yielding canola crops, looking at the relationships between biomass and yield.
The afternoon session involved a presentation from Agronomy and Precision Ag consultant Quenten Knight, who had made the trip across from Esperance, WA, to shed light on how to boost 3.5 - 4t/ha crops up to 7-8t/ha crops in high rainfall zones
Specifically, he discussed soil mapping, constraints such as non-wetting sands, soil acidity, and compaction, and how best to utilise water and soil moisture.
Recently-retired Tasmanian agronomy consultant Terry Horan, talked about long-term approaches to improving yields while maintaining a healthy soil environment.
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FAR Australia's Nick Poole - who hosted the day - and Max Bloomfield talked through some of the results from the cereal trial plots, while Struan farmer and agricultural consultant Jen Lillecrapp talked to host farmer Brett Gilbertson about his farming methods.
The day's program also included a presentation of a HYC award to James Fitzgerald, Hatherleigh, who yielded a 10.59t/ha crop of Accroc wheat in 2020.
The HYC awards are a national program, with presentations delayed due to Covid-19. Mr Fitzgerald also won the award for the highest yield as a percentage of the potential yield in SA. His crop was 99.3 per cent of the 10.67t.ha potential for his paddock - the second highest percentage of potential nationally.
Stock Journal's CLAIRE HARRIS went along to the day.
More to come.
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