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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Repairing severe blowouts at Walker Flat in a decile 1 season
Farming areas of often steep jumbled sand dunes with a history of erosion had led to the Haby’s purchasing a tractor, scraper and bucket.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Combining cropping and sheep in the Millewa
This mixed farming operation aims to sow most paddocks each year, with the rotation being 50% cereal (wheat and barley) and 40% legume (vetch for hay, grain or grazing and field peas; with chickpeas in recent years).
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Proactive soil cover strategies within sustainable continuous cropping programs – including pulses
Soils across Bulla Burra’s farms vary from deep sandy rises and loamy sands through to sandy loam flats, interspersed with areas of shallow calcareous stone and heavier clay loams with high subsoil constraints.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Practical tactics to improve ground cover and ensure soil preservation following successive low rainfall seasons
Erosion risks increase through drought as soil cover diminishes and soil disturbance is increased.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Erosion project looks at new sandy soil strategies
Exposed sandy soils are at greater risk of erosion, especially during low-rainfall years, but a new research project has found it is possible to both prevent and repair blowouts, even in a decile-one year. A survey carried out as part of the project found erosion was more likely to occur in the second or third year of dry conditions and cost growers an average of $80,000 each.
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Soil and Nutrition, 12 Dec 2022
Levelling paddocks after mechanical soil amelioration
Mechanical soil amelioration can make paddocks uneven and in need of re-levelling for better seeding, more comfortable driving and easier harvesting. There are dedicated paddock levellers or grading machines but other equipment can work too, depending on the paddock condition.
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Soil and Nutrition, 07 Dec 2022
Fixing acidity puts yield on the fast track
One farming family has invested in lime and deep tillage to fix their acid subsurface soils
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Soil and Nutrition, 01 Dec 2022
How turning over soil organic matter benefits crops
One critical function soil organisms perform is breaking up and decomposing soil organic matter, which primarily consists of dead and decaying plant and animal residues, as well as the by-products of living soil biota. This organic matter turnover can benefit crops by improving in-season nitrogen availability and building soil carbon, but can have mixed results on water infiltration and the capacity of the soil to store water.
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Soil and Nutrition, 30 Nov 2022
New method a starting point for amelioration decisions
A new system is helping with the challenging application and investment decisions made when ameliorating soils. It seeks to find a way around the many complex, non-linear and soil-specific crop responses to soil amelioration.
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Soil and Nutrition, 29 Nov 2022
Gauging yield uplift critical when contemplating soil amelioration
Whether or not soil amelioration will give a good return on investment largely depends on the yield boost. Grain value and amelioration costs are relatively easy to source or calculate. There are several ways growers can gauge yield uplift.