SOUTHERN Dirt’s Dirt to Dollars challenge is forging ahead despite the drier than average conditions this year.
The competition has seen a field of 16 teams taking to the paddock to test their agronomic and marketing skills to see who will yield the highest gross margin or best net profit and the highest yielding crop overall in their canola crop.
Southern Dirt project officer Emma Russell said like a lot of the crops across the grain belt, the plots could use a drink.
The canola crops were sown on May 9 and since the start of April the site has received 77.2 millimetres of rainfall.
“All the plots have germinated but like everywhere, we need a bit more rain,” Ms Russell said.
“Everything is looking OK at the moment but the varieties are starting to show their differences as there are some really big plants and then some really small plants.
“The hybrids are quite big but the triazine tolerant varieties are still quite small.”
Ms Russell said so far the plots had received a standard insecticide spray and some teams had made additional nitrogen applications.
A post-emergence herbicide application was planned for this week.
“We have had some teams do a nitrogen application at two-leaf and most will be doing a herbicide application this week on the weeds that have come up in the past week,” Ms Russell said.
While she declined to name any front runners, Ms Russell said “some plots are looking better than others”.
“It is still too early to tell at this stage and it will be really interesting to see how it goes throughout the year,” she said.
This is the second time the farming group has run the challenge, which has moved to Katanning for this year.
Each team has six replicated plots in which they choose the crop variety, sowing rate and time, the fertiliser, lime and herbicide spray program and grain marketing strategies.
The teams retain the same plot for the duration of the program to measure the effect of soil ameliorants or conditioning added to the site over three seasons.
Drones will be used throughout the challenge to monitor crops and provide updates on crop progress.