Key Points

• Action learning is an effective way to gain new skills in soil management
• While the highest grower response to a survey was to the surface application of manure or compost, there is growing interest in deep placement of gypsum, lime, manure and nutrients

For growers in the northern region, soil constraints such as sodicity, acidity and salinity are a very real problem. In this region soil sodicity affects 8.1 million hectares and costs growers about $433 million per year, while acidity affects 1.5 million hectares and costs growers $61 million a year and salinity affects 2.6 million hectares and costs growers $47 million.

Action Learning Groups (ALGs) led by Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and NSW's Department of Primary Industries (DPI) are being run as part of a multi-agency GRDC-invested project, 'The economics of ameliorating soil constraints in the northern region', to address these issues.

"ALGs comprise small groups of growers working on real problems, taking action and learning as individuals and as a team. This helps develop creative, flexible and successful strategies to pressing problems," says DAF principal development extension officer Jayne Gentry.

"The ALGs will provide growers with much-needed knowledge and capacity to enable them to identify what constraints are present on their properties, where they occur and what management practices will alleviate them to increase yield and profitability," Ms Gentry says.

"The aim of these groups is to link growers directly with researchers through a facilitated learning process and promote on-farm research."

Figure 1: Map of ALG locations. Source: DAF

Round one

Formed in March 2018 around six research sites - Parkes, Armatree and Spring Ridge in NSW, and Millmerran, Meandarra and Talwood in Queensland (Figure 1) - the first round of ALG activities focused on results from grower paddocks sampled in each region.

Thirty paddocks were sampled for standard physical and chemical components and electrical conductivity and elevation maps were taken and analysed by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and University of New England (UNE). Individual reports were developed for each paddock by USQ and these formed the basis of the initial action learning.

The same agenda was followed for each of the first six meetings with the ultimate aim to help individual participants develop and document practical on-farm strategies and to identify the most appropriate one to manage their soil constraints.

Action learning groups comprise small groups of growers working on real problems, taking action and learning as individuals and as a team. This helps develop creative, flexible and successful strategies to pressing problems. - Jayne Gentry, principal development extension officer, DAF

Craig Birchall (UNE) and Dr David Lester (DAF) gave each group a thorough introduction to soil sodicity, explaining how it interacts with other soil constraints and how to identify it and interpret diagnosis. Meetings then discussed paddock results and methods of amelioration. With support from the project team, growers were encouraged to develop on-farm research treatments to test their chosen constraint management strategy on their own farms.

"These ALGs are a unique opportunity to leverage both expertise and finance to achieve a solution on-farm that we could not individually," says grower Ross Krinke, who is involved in the Millmerran ALG.

"They are about tailor-making solutions to produce better crops."

Baseline knowledge

Figure 2: How ALG participants rated their sodicity problem (1 = no problem to 5 = severe). Source: DAF

ALG members were surveyed at the start of the activities to establish their initial understanding of soil constraints. This information will be referred to at the conclusion of the project to help gauge the impact on growers' understanding and management of soil constraints.

Figure 2 shows the rating of ALG participants' understanding of their sodicity constraint on-farm, while Figure 3 shows the rating of their ability to manage sodicity challenges, with the majority rating it fairly low, at two out of five.

Figure 3: Rate your ability to manage sodicity on your property (1 = poor through to 5 = excellent). Source: DAF

Figure 4 illustrates the range of amelioration options the growers would like to try on their farms, which were coded from a totally open-ended question.

"While the highest response was in the application of manure or compost on the surface, it is interesting to note the level of interest in deep placement of gypsum, lime, manure and nutrients," Ms Gentry says.

Figure 4: What management/amelioration strategy would you like to try? Source: DAF

Availability of appropriate machinery is a limitation to product application at depth. This was shown by the high level of grower and adviser interest in viewing in action experimental machines developed by UNE and DAF at the six research sites last year.

Nine on-farm research sites were implemented with the ALGs in 2019, representing significant new soil constraint research across the northern region, from south of Parkes, NSW, to Dulacca, Queensland.

Further on-farm research sites are planned for 2020, and 30 additional grower paddocks in these regions will be sampled.

More information: Jayne Gentry, DAF, jayne.gentry@daf.qld.gov.au, 0428 459 138.