At the 2020 Grains Research Update at Goondiwindi digital soil mapping specialist Ed Jones from the University of Sydney, gave a presentation on mapping soil properties and their impact on yield. It’s what in the near future will become the way growers and their advisors calculate what management a paddock, or section of a paddock needs to increase crop yield and maximise grower profit. The technique uses data from multiple sources, applies machine learning and delivers recommendations in weeks that until recently took decades to record, digest, trial and apply.

A grain grower survey conducted across 25 farm businesses in Western Australia’s northern agricultural region found the majority considered their cereal crop yields were being adversely affected by the inefficient use of micronutrients. In this podcast, grower Dylan Hirsch, based at Latham in WA, talks us through this survey and the broader GRDC investment behind it.

The GRDC has invested in a two-year project that aims to identify the requirements for, and benefits of, micronutrient foliar application in medium-to-low rainfall areas of WA’s Northern Agricultural Region. The research project is led by Western Australian grain grower group, the Liebe Group, in partnership with Murdoch University. Murdoch University’s Professor Richard Bell talks us though the research and what it means for growers.

Controlled Traffic Farming is in simple terms driving your heavy vehicles on the same wheel tracks every time you’re in the paddock. In Australia’s southeastern grain growing region Controlled Traffic Farming has been widely adopted in high and medium rainfall zones but not so much in low rainfall zones.

Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda was detected in Australia for the first time in January 2020 and a warning was issued to grain growers to inspect crops for signs of the pest’s presence. The larval stage of the moth is similar in appearance to many caterpillars already present in agricultural and horticultural crops and can cause severe economical damage, even total crop destruction.

Ironstone gravels are important cropping soils and a better understanding about the mineralogy and physical characteristics of these soils, especially their soil moisture holding capacity and high rates of phosphorus ‘fixation’ is urgently required. So the GRDC has invested in new research, led by the University of Western Australia, to study and understand these soils to help growers maximise crop productivity from these soils.

A new research project in the Southern Region will take the principles of Precision Agriculture and apply them to addressing sub-soil constraints. Simply put, this innovative approach will identify the location of poorly performing soil, potentially reducing the areas within a paddock that need soil amelioration work to be done. Professor Roger Armstrong from Agriculture Victoria explains more on this podcast.

GRDC’s investment in faba bean breeding has contributed to the delivery of new and improved Faba bean varieties to grain growers. In Western Australia’s Esperance Port Zone the high rainfall makes Faba beans a suitable legume to include in crop rotations and WA’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior research scientist Mark Seymour has been working with growers to make the most of the benefits a pulse in the rotation can bring to cropping systems.

Farmers and their advisers, naturally, are mostly focused on growing better grain – finding those incremental improvements that can often mean so much to the bottom line of farming businesses. But there are people also working at the other end of the grain trail – a long way from the farm – focused on improving market access and even developing new and innovative grain products to make Australian grain more valuable to customers. One such story is the work being undertaken by AEGIC – the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre – on making changes to the way Australian malting barley can be used by Chinese beer makers.

Esperance Port Zone grain grower Neil Wandel has been including faba beans in his crop rotations for 4 decades. While they might not be the highest value legume he could grow, the range of benefits faba beans bring to his paddocks make them a favourite rotation crop.

The complexity of agriculture would lead some people to label farming as a form of art. Working with the climate, the landscape, the machinery, the crops, the business … the list goes on. Somehow synthesising all the elements that go into making a modern farm and coming out the other end with a profitable enterprise. And doing it year after year. It’s no wonder farmers need to be resilient. In the first of two parts agricultural consultant, Chris Minehan, talks about having a resilient business – what that means and how to achieve it.

In this podcast Professor Ary Hoffman from the University of Melbourne reveals DNA technology has enabled researchers to make great advances in understanding the Redlegged Earth Mite and how resistance to pesticides has evolved.

Trials undertaken on the Riverine Plains testing early sowing times for both spring and winter wheat varieties have produced some interesting results, particularly around moisture requirements at sowing. At the other end of the season, it’s all about avoiding the frost window during flowering and also spreading out flowering dates. On this podcast FAR Australia researcher Michael Straight talks about the trials which compared the performance of common winter and spring varieties grown on the Riverine Plains.

Oats has a wonderful reputation amongst consumers, especially those in Asia, as a very healthy product. So it makes sense to find more ways to present oats to those consumers. And that is exactly what the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre is doing developing new products such as oat-based rice and oat-based noodles. On this podcast we speak to one of the very enthusiastic people behind this research that is adding extra value to the humble oat.

GRDC’s Pulsecheck program aims to introduce growers who are new to growing pulses to all the challenges and rewards to be had by diversifying into these increasingly popular grains. So, what’s Pulsecheck all about? This podcast we hope will convince you to check your pulses.

Field Peas can be problematic for WA growers to grow, but a simple management practice could change that. Dr Sarita Bennet from the Centre for Crop and Disease Management in WA has trialled using cereal stubble as a form of trellis for the field pea plants to climb. While broadacre trials are needed, Dr Bennett says the early results are positive.

Just how quickly, as farmers, we can change the nature of weeds is perfectly spotlighted by how quickly barley grass and brome grass have reacted to our attempts to control them in cropping paddocks. On this podcast Associate Professor Gurjeet Gill explains how these grasses have learned to adapt to control methods and are now lasting longer in the seedbank than they were just 20 years ago.

Barley grass in the southern cropping region is becoming more prominent as a problem weed for croppers – as herbicide resistance emerges and as the plant evolves develops new behaviours. A region wide series of trials is taking place, including work being carried out at Birchip in western Victoria by the Birchip Cropping Group, with the overall project being overseen by weed and cropping specialist, Associate Professor Gurjeet Gill from the University of Adelaide.

Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior researcher Mark Seymour and Esperance Port Zone grain grower Ron Longbottom feature in this podcast about Lentils. In WA growers have been cautious about including this pulse in their cropping program because of variable yields and harvesting challenges. However new lentil varieties and modern harvester fronts have made the lentil a more viable option in cropping systems.

How do you take soil samples from your paddocks? A leading soil scientist maintains that many farmers are leaving a lot of valuable information buried in the paddock, which could be easily accessed with a slightly different approach to sampling. On this podcast, Jason Codon invites you to look at soil sampling with soil variability in mind.

And you thought you were responsible for that amazing wheat crop. Think again. There are people in back offices all over Australia who know the seed you sow, infinitely better that you could hope. These are the people of SAGI – Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry. The name does not even hint what SAGI does. Take a listen and find out about the best friends you will ever have in the grains industry.

They may be tiny but the damage they can potentially do is far from small. Root Lesion Nematodes are well known as a problem, but there is still much to learn about them and their impact on crops. A new investment by GRDC aims to fill in some knowledge gaps in parts of WA and develop further options for growers seeking to better control the nematodes if they are proving a problem in individual paddocks.