While most field says are the culmination of much hard work, those at the Condobolin Agricultural Research and Advisory Station were keenly feeling the effects of that work this year as they prepared for their September field day.

With water scarce, station staff have been going the extra mile to protect research assets, achieve results and ensure a successful field day.

For NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) research and development agronomist and station director Ewan Leighton and Condobolin staff, that has meant watering trials to mimic rainfall at critical times – and at all hours. This dedication is mirrored by many agronomists and researchers across the region. Instead of the drought slowing them down or stopping research, it has led to many extra hours of work.

The significant effort researchers are putting in during an extremely difficult season has not gone unnoticed, with GRDC acting senior regional manager, north, Gillian Meppem, acknowledged their endeavours.

“GRDC understands and empathises with grain growers who are struggling with really awful seasonal conditions. What we also acknowledge is that our research partners are currently being challenged by the drought too,” Ms Meppem says.

“For many, this is the second or third season they have had to battle tough conditions and we are keenly aware that many of our research partners have gone over and above in their efforts to ensure trials are kept alive and on track.

“This extra effort will ensure there are no gaps in our research data and for that we are very grateful, as is the wider grains industry.”

Ms Meppem says GRDC has long and established relationships with many research organisations and values the contribution they make to the enduring profitability of grain growers.

“We always work closely with our research partners and these challenging seasons just emphasise the importance of those relationships and the value of all working together – GRDC, growers, advisors and researchers – to learn what we can from the toughest of times.”

In this edition, GroundCover talk to some of those dedicated researchers and looks at their efforts.

Condobolin Agricultural Research Station

Research staff at Condobolin with young children may have been used to getting up regularly throughout the night. However, this year many also found themselves waking at all hours not for parental duties or hungry babies - but for dedicated research and thirsty trial crops.

The station has always had important trials on the go and this year was no different; the only problem was the lack of rain.

To protect research investments, Mr Leighton says the NSW DPI invested in irrigation equipment. This meant his team was able to use a new 200-metre lateral irrigator on trials.

It works by moving at a constant speed up and down a paddock, irrigating as it goes. Although Mr Leighton says it is "very handy", it needs to be monitored every two hours.

"It can take up to 22 hours to water trials sites, so we have to be up during the night to check on it. We have all been setting alarms to get up, drive to the site and then check on the trials, for weeks - just to keep them alive."

He says the trials are now classed as irrigated and the paddocks are watered to be regionally reflective. "This means we have watered to a decile three to five - from 20 per cent below average rainfall to an average amount. This means all the trials remain relevant."

From his office window, Mr Leighton's view is of mostly brown paddocks. This season, the station has had 65 millimetres of in-season rainfall. Yet the way this rain has falled, most of it in less than 5mm bursts, has been ineffective. "Out here that amount of rain doesn't really soak in."

This was on top of 120mm of summer fallow rain that either fell in small amounts or in large gushes, often lost as run-off.

Normally the station would have had more than 100mm during the winter season.

"Although we did record 18mm in June, we've not had a decent rain event since November 2018."

With a field day in September, the team were keen to do their best.

"We all have a strong sense of ownership in these trials. We take our work very seriously and wwe put a lot of effort in. We may be tired and over it, but these trials are like our babies and we want to do our best and remain relevant to our growers."

Optimising sorghum agronomy

Elders agronomist Jo Weier, who is working with NSW DPI agronomist Loretta Serafin on the GRDC-funded 'Optimising Sorghum Agronomy' project, says the trials were fenced to keep wild pigs and kangaroos out.

"With this type of year, if it wasn't fenced it would not last," she says.

Although the lack of rain has seen trials sites watered, the challenge now is keeping it up. Ms Serafin says the sites where water was applied to establish the trials are still very thirsty.

"Most soil profiles are a long way from full. The challenge is that we can't keep watering them. While we have been successful in getting the plants out of the ground and giving them a boost in their first few weeks of growth, their demand for water is greater than we can apply through the season."

The trials - part of the University of Queensland-led project, in collaboration with NSW DPI and Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) - are testing how early sorghum can be planted. To ensure they were sown on time, that meant watering.

Ms Serafin says the three growes involved in the trials have been very supportive. "We chose sites close to their bore water tanks and have used 200 to 300 metres of lay-flat hose to get the water to the trial and are then using dripper lines to irrigate down the sowing furrows.

"We have been applying the equivalent of a fall of around 30mm of rain at each of our sites and plant establishment has been okay. Some sites have been better than others, just depending on how cold and windy it has been following the watering."

As well as watering to set up the trials, she says they have added a second watering to their first time-of-sowing trial, which was at the end of July. "Some plants were starting to die so we watered it again. For us, it was about protecting an asset as much as we could. Just like any commercial field, it is epensive to run trials. Now it is on its own. Our priority has been to sow the trials on time and give them every opportunity we can to survive, but we can't keep watering."

Not only is it impractical to water the trials for the whole season, it is also ethically challenging: "We don't want to use more water than we have to."

Although the trials may not yield, she says, at least the research team will have early sowing results. The first trials were sown on 22 July at Mungindi. So far, they have had only minor leaf damage from frost.

"We want to be able to provide growers and advisors with answers to their questions about how early sorghum in the north-west can be grown. As a result, when soil temperatures started to reach 12C we decided to start sowing and that meant adding water where nature wasn't this season. We couldn't put it off any longer; we had to get the trials sown to get results," Ms Serafin says.

"At the end of the day, we have done everything we can. Our staff and the team at B&W Rural, Mungindi and our collaborating growers have been amazing. While a lot of growers are quiet at the moment doing shed jobs and fencing, it's been the opposite for us. We may not be holding out great hope of a successful harvest at this point, but it could turn around quickly - it just looks like it's going to be a very dry and hot spring at the moment."

Central NSW cover crop trials

Using 180,000 litres of water to establish four dryland cover crop trials in central NSW was a challenge, but it did yield a great result for NSW DPI's research agronomist Colin McMaster in a very tough season.

Using that much water - to mimic 10mm of rainfall - was "a real eye-opener in terms of how much just 10mm of rain is", Mr McMaster says.

Mr McMaster was using the water to ensure a successful establishment on the summer phase of the cover cropping trials this season, following poor establishment in the summer of 2017-18 due to 10 days of extreme heat post-sowing.

"With an expanded research program planned for the 2018-19 summer, we had to decrease risks, guarantee crop establishment and ensure even establishment. So, we decided to irrigate to get the crop up and then let the season dictate."

The trials aim to inform growers on the pros and cons of growing summer cover crops in central NSW. They compare single and multi-species at several spray-out timings as part of a project funded by GRDC, NSW DPI and Queensland DAF.

A key outcome for growers is to evaluate whether there are potential benefits to soil water infiltration and accumulation from cover crops, and how it impacts on soil fertility, soil temperature and disease risk for the following cash crop.

"We currently have plenty of paddocks in central NSW with low ground cover and this data will help inform growers regarding the risk/reward from growing a cover crop and how it could affect the farming system," he says.

The trials have been sown on growers' properties in both central east and central west NSW and include both long and short fallow scenarios.

Once the research team decided on irrigating, water tankers were ordered and storage tanks placed on-farm. "We organised tankers to cart water to the sites and stored it in 25,000-litre water tanks. From there, we transported it in trailers to the paddock, using driplines in the furrows after the initial planting."

With three staff, it took an extra four days to get the sites irrigated - moving water in, laying trickle tape, moving that tape to other parts of the paddock and then moving it all away again.

Learning about efficiencies

Althoug the irrigation process meant more work, Mr McMaster says, efficiencies have been learned. "Our aim was to drought proof our trials and get them established and we did."

The efforts were rewarded, he says, with storms through summer across two trials sites, showcasing various options for cover crops.

"We can say to growers - if you do get a sowing opportunity in November and December, here's some local results regarding the potential risks and rewards."

The autumn field day stirred interest in growers about what can be achieved, while the spring field day showed the winners and losers in a tough season.

Mr McMaster says the trials report will clearly state how much irrigation water was applied to establish the various trials, so it is transparent to growers.

"The reason we did not continue the trial in 2017 was that the poor establishment would skew the results and be misleading. In 2018 we wanted to ensure that the crops established, so we made the decision to water them."

More information: Loretta Serafin, 02 6763 1147, loretta.serafin@dpi.nsw.gov.au; Ewan Leighton, 02 6895 1048, ewan.leighton@dpi.nsw.gov.au; Colin McMaster, 0427 940 847, colin.mcmaster@dpi.nsw.gov.au