THE dry winter has not been a big problem for TS & DE Cowcher Farms, Narrogin, thanks to the use of LURE H2O.
The highly non-wetting soils on the farm were always a problem until farm manager Doug Harrington approached WA spray oil, adjuvant and surfactant specialists SACOA in 2007.
After strip trials of a number of test products and application to a small broadacre test paddock under canola in 2008, LURE produced some spectacular results by allowing rain to break through the non-wetting surface and lure water into the critical root zone.
As a result, Mr Harrington decided to place LURE H2O under the entire 600 hectare canola program the following year.
The residual, which lasts for two years, also allowed the 70mm of rain in March 2010 to soak well into the ground.
Mr Harrington said the canola stubble produced a lot of feed for livestock as the growth early in the season produced more biomass.
"It got to the extent that in 2010, we were able to lock up our pastures until early June," he said.
This year, Mr Harrington sprayed LURE under his entire 900ha canola program.
Even though he missed the early rain in March and April, he has still had reasonable success due to good water use efficiency produced by the product.
"Our canola's really only had about 150 millimetres for the total program for the growing season this year, so it's been quite short," Mr Harrington said.
The usual average rainfall for the growing season was over 300mm.
He said he would probably achieve a tonne of canola to the hectare over the whole program, which was a good result in such a dry year.
The 400ha of barley crop has also done well due to the residual LURE from the previous year, which allowed it to take advantage of the early March rain as well.
While many other crops in the area were drying up, the barley is still green and pulling moisture from the soil.
"If we can average 2.5t, which is our year-in, year-out average, on a very poor year, we'll be quite happy," Mr Harrington said.
Mr Harrington said the 100ha of oats growing under residual LURE was good, but the 300ha without LURE did not fare so well.
"We had poor germinations and a lot of weed germinations there, and as a result, decided to spray it out in early October," he said.
"We'll wean lambs on that 300ha."
After the initial application, Mr Harrington said about 15mm rainfall was required to distribute the material through the soil profile before planting a crop.
In future, he will apply the LURE in early March so that he can take advantage of any early rainfall for both his canola and cereal programs.
Instead of applying fertiliser, Mr Harrington will start applying LURE to his pasture program as well.
His pasture has been limited this year and soil tests indicate plenty of P and K left in the soil.
"We'll be able to capitalise on the nutrient that we're already holding in our fertiliser bank," he said.
"Next year we will apply LURE and hopefully gain increased production on our pasture."
The application of LURE has also been found to increase the effectiveness of soil herbicides such as Trifluralin and Atrazine.
"Because we've got moisture in the profile, we're getting a better weed kill, so our crops this year where LURE has been applied are very clean," Mr Harrington said.
The initial application of the material should be onto unworked soil, according to Mr Harrington.
"If the material isn't in the soil profile and you're bringing the non-wetting soil to the surface and throwing it on top of the LURE, that then stops the rain from going in," he said.
Once LURE is in the profile, the soil can then be worked dry.
LURE has been effective in keeping moisture more evenly distributed throughout the topography.
The mixture of sandy, gravel-type soils prevalent on Cowcher Farms meant rainfall at the top of the hill usually ran down into the creek at the bottom, but could now soak into the ground rapidly, allowing previously unproductive land to be utilised for crops.
