Southern Dirt crop challenge kicks off

It is the second time the competition has run - the previous challenge was held during the 2013-2015 seasons at a site near Kojonup.

This year the challenge moves to Katanning and will run over the next three years next to the Katanning Leisure Centre.

Each team will have six replicated plots in which they choose 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 affect 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.

There are two categories to win, the highest gross margin or best net profit and the highest yielding crop, with all yield and profits calculated on the basis of a 50 hectare paddock.

Southern Dirt executive officer Tracey Hodgkins said a wide mix of teams were participating in the challenge.

"We have a young farmers team, an all women team, we've got about half and half farmers and agribusiness teams, but most of the agribusiness team have one farmer and most of the farmer teams have an agribusiness rep - it is a real mixture," she said.

Ms Hodgkins said while the prize for the three-year challenge was "mainly bragging rights", it gave teams the opportunity to trial different tactics they could eventually use on their farms.

"It's the best experiential education you can possibly get," she said.

"You can do things there you couldn't do on your farm and you can try things out and see where your tactics take you.

"You can be smart and get one good year in but to win overall the winner generally plans for the whole thing, rather than just the one year."

The inaugural Dirt to $ winning team Kojonup Agricultural Supplies is putting its best team forward for this challenge.

The team is made up of partner and agronomist Alec Smith, partner Ned Capper, partner and animal health manager Matt Atkinson, operations and logistics manager Tim Mathwin, partner and seed sales manager Ken Stan-Bishop, CSBP fertiliser sales manager Peter Holland and agronomist Alec Rex.

Mr Capper said their success came from having clear objectives.

"It is a wonderful competition and it is a management skill competition and the amount of variables is incredible - we all did things differently," he said.

"You do have a bit of luck but the important thing is to have clear objectives and to try and look three years ahead.

"I think all the teams that did well stuck to the plan they had at the start and followed that all the way through the different rotations, they didn't chop and change from there."

Mr Capper said grain marketing strategies played a large role in the team's previous success.

"For us, it was bit of everything - we were sort of middle of the road in terms of inputs but there were guys at the high end of the spectrum and those who were at the low end of the spectrum and we're on that middle ground," he said.

"The grain marketing was a big part of it and while we probably didn't do as well as some of the other teams across the whole marketing, the average for the guys that did use a grain marketer or did the grains marketing through a professional agency was a $20 a tonne premium across those who didn't use one - that is massive."

This year the team will be sowing canola, although the variety is still under discussion.

"Alec and I are going to go out and inspect the site at the beginning of next week and that will determine the variety that we use in terms of the weed spectrum - at this stage I am punting on a TT hybrid," Mr Capper said.