SOIL acidity has been a major issue affecting part of Glen Morrell farm.
Dylan Turner farms with his parents Lance and Erin with their main property being at East Pingelly and another block east of Corrigin, which is where soil acidity has been a concern.
To combat sub-soil constraints, Mr Turner has conducted soil trials and other trials through the Corrigin Farm Improvement Group (CFIG) which are funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
The CFIG trial consists of four plots of LaTrobe barley on two hectares, which was sown in the second week of May.
He said 30 per cent of the farm consists of compacted, acidic sands that he hopes to be able to resolve with deep ripping and ploughing at different depths.
The Turners bought the East Corrigin block about eight years ago and have been regularly applying lime to help correct the soil pH.
“Because this country is really acidic and grows bugger all crop, we have been spreading lime on it for the past few years and it’s the sort of soil that should get a good response, as well as from deep ripping,” Mr Turner said.
“We just can’t get the yields in this lighter country."
The Turners spread 1000 tonnes of lime in August last year at two tonnes per hectare.
Prior to seeding the trial, they applied urea at 50 kilograms per hectare and 70kg/ha of AgFlow Extra.
Mr Turner said 60 millimetres of summer rain gave the trial area good sub-soil moisture for seeding.
“We were pretty happy with the summer rain, the sub-soil moisture hung around a lot longer than we thought and we got quite a lot of crop up this year just on sub-soil (moisture),” he said.
The season break was at the end of May with 22mm of rainfall and another 12mm since.
Mr Turner said the East Corrigin block usually receives about 280mm of annual growing season rainfall but the past two years have been above average.
Despite having a no tillage approach to their operation for the past few decades, Mr Turner said they decided to re-visit deep ripping to incorporate the high pH top-soil (from recent lime application) into the lower soil and to alleviate soil compaction. “The home farm that Dad grew up on is not far from here (East Pingelly property) and they did some back in the 80s and he said it looked good but there was no yield response, so we have pretty much been no-till since then,”Mr Turner said.
“We wanted that top-soil inclusion to try and get better pH top-soil further down.”
The soil manipulation included deep ripping at 300mm, 450mm and 600mm depths with the 450mm deep ripped trial also having been one-way ploughed.
Mr Turner said it is still too early to notice any benefits. His own trial is about 20-30ha and is similar to the CFIG trial, only Mr Turner started in January, not being aware of the up-coming CFIG trial.
“When the CFIG trial came along, which is on similar but different soil, I thought it would be a good chance to do some more trials on different soil types,” he said.
CFIG executive officer Veronika Crouch said soil amelioration was a key part of farming systems used in WA to overcome soil limitations to crop production.
"The removal of soil constraints such as compaction and water repellence through strategic tillage practices generally leads to increases in crop production in successive years," Ms Crouch said.
"One of the limitations that threatens the longevity of these benefits is that the soil can re-compact over time following amelioration, often leading to levels higher than before amelioration.
"Currently, the solution is to repeat the deep ripping process every few years, with the period between deep ripping dependent on the soil type and amount of wheeled traffic on the paddock."
Ms Crouch said the adoption of controlled traffic practices by growers is one tool that can potentially increase the longevity of soil ameliorative practices.
However, the potential of controlled traffic practises to increase the longevity of amelioration treatments has only been evaluated on a narrow range of soil types.
Ms Crouch said the ideal project outcome of the CFIG trial which Mr Turner is participating in, is for growers in each port zone to use the demonstration sites to increase their knowledge and adoption of deep ripping and controlled traffic farming used for alleviating non-wetting soils, compaction and waterlogging on their particular soil types and farming systems.
Ms Crouch said CFIG had established Ripper Gauge sites which have been implemented in each port zone.
These sites demonstrate soil manipulation practises such as deep working seeding points, deep ripping, inversion ploughing, rotary spading, delving, no de-compaction treatments and grower practice.
The Turners’ farming operation is 100pc cropping and this year comprises 70pc barley, 10pc fallow, 10pc lupins and 10pc canola.
Mr Turner said they had stayed away from planting wheat for the past few years due to its susceptibility to frost and barley’s ability to handle dryer conditions better.
The family decided to make the change to a full cropping enterprise in 1990 and have noticed major improvements in crops and efficiency since.
“At the time prices for sheep weren’t very good and the plan was to sell them and get back into sheep in a couple of years when things were looking a bit better, but they had seen a huge improvement in the crops and weeds were a lot easier to control, so they just stayed full cropping,” Mr Turner said.
A crop rotation of barley for one year and a break with either canola or lupins is used at the East Pingelly block, whereas the Corrigin block is two years of barley and then one year of chem-fallow.
“This year will be our fourth year of fallow, we started off with 400ha and have just gone up bit by bit,” Mr Turner said.
This season will be Mr Turner’s second year back on the farm full-time and he said the farming life suited him perfectly.
“I love everything about it – the lifestyle and the challenge of it,” he said.
“I always wanted to be a farmer.”Since acquiring the Corrigin block, conserving moisture on that country has been a major priority for the farmers which had prompted them to increase the amount of fallow they do.
Mr Turner said they were aiming to fallow at least 50pc of the block.
An easy-going attitude can really help with the issues of farm life and Mr Turner has certainly got that down pat, not concerning himself too much about the future.
“I have no idea what the future will hold but that’s the fun of it – we just take it as it comes,” he said.
For now, that means managing the soil acidity and conserving more moisture on the family’s Corrigin property.