THE West Midlands Group (WMG) has launched a new project that aims to quantify the benefit of soil amelioration practices across all major soil types in the State’s grain growing region.
To date, studies undertaken on soil amelioration have been largely focused on the highly responsive sandplain soils and the yield benefits of these practices.
WMG executive officer Nathan Craig said the project aimed to expand the knowledge of deep ripping and other soil amelioration practices for a larger pool of WA grain growers.
“We’ll be investigating the practices of deep ripping, spading, mouldboarding and one-way ploughing to remove soil constraints such as compaction, water repellence or to incorporate lime to combat soil acidity,” Mr Craig said.
The project will run across WA with demonstrations and testing completed in five port zones.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development development officer Wayne Parker said growers needed a thorough understanding of the positive and negative impacts of deep ripping on their relevant soil type.
“Deep ripping encourages quick growth and biomass production, which can have a negative impact if there’s no water to finish off at the end of the season because you end up with a leafy crop with not enough moisture,” Mr Parker said.
“Soil amelioration is king at the moment because it helps get our crops up, keeps them growing during the regular dry spells in winter and fills grain at the end of the season.”
The WMG-led project will involve nine grower groups working collaboratively and is funded for three years by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
“Collaboration between grower groups across the five port zones in WA will enable this project to collect results that will provide a meaningful snapshot of deep ripping across all major soil types” Mr Craig said.
The project commenced this year and will finish at the end of the 2020 season.
