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Soil and Nutrition, 18 Mar 2025
The quest for the perfect rhizobia–legume matches
GRDC has made a groundbreaking investment in creating the world’s largest collection of rhizobia, significantly impacting the agricultural sector through soil fertility and reduced reliance on synthetic fertilisers. This state-of-the-art facility now hosts an impressive 11,800 rhizobia strains from more than 90 different species and at least 10 genera, positioning it as a global leader in rhizobia research and application.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Mar 2025
Long-term spading benefits shine in dry season
Lower Eyre Peninsula grain grower David Giddings has deep-ripped and spaded his duplex sandy loam soils, mixing potassium-rich clay through hostile layers of sand and gravel for greater water-holding capacity, yield gains and improved weed control.
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Soil and Nutrition, 11 Mar 2025
Practical guidelines for sustained productivity in sandy soils
Sandy Soils II is a major new project to increase productivity in water-repellent, acidic, compacted and nutrient-deficient sandy soils in South Australia and Victoria. It builds on the six-year GRDC Sandy Soils investment that produced an evidence-based amelioration guide, Sandy Soils of the Southern Region.
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Soil and Nutrition, 28 Feb 2025
Advancing cereal yield frontiers
GRDC is investing in research to identify agronomic tactics to help growers achieve yield potential, setting new benchmarks for wheat (17.3t/ha), barley (13.7t/ha) and canola (6.5t/ha)
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Soil and Nutrition, 26 Feb 2025
Responsive practices drive sustainability
Resilient farming businesses require holistic thinking, as the Pechs from the Great Southern region of Western Australia can attest to. Combining diverse income streams, harnessing responsive practices and accessing experts on facets of their business is key.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Feb 2025
Sensing the future
Agriculture is on the cusp of a revolution in sensors and sensing technology. Soil and crops will become the data points, creating the internet of soil or the internet of plants.
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Soil and Nutrition, 27 Jan 2025
Decision-support tools can avoid costly under-fertilising
Concerns about environmental impacts, cost and crop performance may be leading southern grain growers to under-fertilise, missing out on potential yield gains of up to 40 per cent. Dr Yolanda Plowman, a senior research manager at Birchip Cropping Group, encourages the use of support tools, such as Yield Prophet®, and nitrogen banking to optimise nitrogen use.
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Soil and Nutrition, 16 Jan 2025
Precision tillage puts lime where needed
Accurate deep tillage, lime incorporation and trace elements have added resilience to a NSW family farming business
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Soil and Nutrition, 15 Jan 2025
Partnership puts a measure on GHG emissions
A whole-of-supply-chain partnership is giving growers the know-how to reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil productivity
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Soil and Nutrition, 19 Dec 2024
‘Moonshot’ investment tracks soil amelioration over time and space
Groundbreaking research in soil profile re-engineering, supported by GRDC and WA DPIRD, aims to tackle the constraints of WA soils by improving their physical and chemical properties to boost crop water use efficiency (WUE) and grain yield. The project combines innovative methods such as deep soil loosening and targeted application of treatments to address soil constraints, and has produced significant yield increases in sandy and duplex soils, though mixed results in heavy soils. Building on this success, the Soil Water and Nutrition (SWAN) collaboration seeks to further improve water and nutrient use efficiency in Western Australia’s grain production.