A ‘DIAGNOSTIC agronomy’ workshop hosted recently by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in Western Australia will help guide investment in agronomy research and development.
GRDC panel members and staff, growers, researchers and consultants discussed issues including tools currently available or being developed to assess crop performance, as well as grower needs and future priorities.
GRDC agronomy, soil and environment manager Martin Blumenthal said the workshop included a presentation on the development of a comprehensive diagnostic tool for wheat.
“Developed by Doug Sawkins of the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) and funded by the GRDC, the LUCID web-based diagnostic tool will provide simple steps to diagnose crop and pasture problems and offer remedial solutions,” he said.
“Participants at the workshop were excited at the potential of this tool, which could be expanded to cover other grain crops, to comprehensively cover all potential paddock and crop symptoms in one resource.”
Dr Blumenthal said the LUCID tool would help growers, many of whom felt overwhelmed by the vast range of separate tools and tests available to diagnose crop performance.
“Growers are time-poor but it is important that they identify their key agronomic issues and manage for them,” he said.
ConsultAg agronomist Garren Knell, who attended the event, said growers were facing a lot of seasonal variability, and it was important they identified their particular barriers to production to best manage each season.
“Growers need to be careful how they spend their time and money on testing for limitations to crop production, but if they have a good understanding of their system, they can pinpoint the tests they need to get the best bang for their effort,” he said.
Mr Knell said non-wetting sands and gravels were a major issue for many of his clients, especially in the last two seasons.
“Current GRDC research projects aim to identify how to deal with non-wetting soils, which our current system of farming seems to be exacerbating,” he said.
Mr Knell said another issue facing growers was the complexity or subjectivity of some agronomic tests.
“It is much easier for growers to test the acidity of their soils and use the pH results to determine liming programs, than conduct the more subjective tests used to assess gypsum requirements,” Mr Knell said.
“But when gypsum testing is done right, it can also be very profitable.”
