A five-year research program which focused on the management of stubbles in southern farming systems has generated a wealth of regional guidelines to support growers in their efforts to maintain profitability while retaining stubbles.

The GRDC's Stubble Initiative, conducted from 2014 to 2018, was initiated following a comprehensive gap analysis that identified the need for stubble management guidelines for growers in the southern cropping region.

Several farming groups worked on locally-relevant issues and contributed to coordinated research, managed by CSIRO, and extension, managed by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), to develop the regional guidelines.

The farming systems groups involved were:

FarmLink Research;

• Birchip Cropping Group (BCG);
• Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Research Foundation (EPARF);
• Central West Farming Systems (CWFS);
• Hart Field-Site Group;
• Lower Eyre Agricultural Development Association (LEADA);
• Southern Farming Systems (SFS);
• Irrigated Cropping Council (ICC);
• MacKillop Farm Management Group (MFMG);
• Victorian No Till Farmers Association Inc (VNTFA);
• Mallee Sustainable Farming (MSF);
• Riverine Plains;
• Upper North Farming Systems (UNFS);
• Yorke Peninsula Alkaline Soils Group (YPASG);
• Mid North High Rainfall Zone Group (MNHRZ);
• Yeruga Crop Research.

Regional guidelines and a range of other detailed extension materials have been produced and communicated throughout the duration of the initiative and beyond.

This information is available through the farming systems groups involved and on GRDC's website's dedicated Stubble Initiative section.

One of the Stubble Initiative's lead researchers, John Kirkegaard, of CSIRO, has been presenting key findings from the research program at 2019 GRDC Grains Research Updates.

Dr Kirkegaard says growers need to be flexible and proactively manage stubbles in accordance wit their individual seeding systems.

"Diversification of crops and practices is the plataform for farming profitably with stubble, and a critical threshold of two to three tonnes of stubble per hectare provides most of the benefit," he says.

More information: John Kirkegaard, CSIRO, 0458 354 630, john.kirkegaard@csiro.au