Australia
October 1, 2020
Researcher Rohan Brill from Brill Ag will showcase canola trials as part of the GRDC Hyper Yielding Crops field day at Wallendbeen on Thursday, October 8, from 1.30-4.30pm. Photo Nicole Baxter, GRDC.
Southern New South Wales grain growers will have an opportunity to see on-farm trials and hear from research experts as part of a field day showcasing a new national initiative pushing crop yield boundaries in high rainfall environments.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) new Hyper Yielding Crops (HYC) initiative is under way and growers are invited to the first field day at Wallendbeen on Thursday, October 8, from 1.30-4.30pm.
The four-year HYC research initiative spans five states – New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia – and aims to push the economically attainable yield boundaries of wheat, barley and canola
Within each state there are HYC research centres of excellence with farm trials and an innovative grower network charged with taking research and development learnings from small plot to paddock scale.
Project leader Nick Poole, from the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR Australia), said the new HYC initiative builds on the success of the GRDC’s four-year Hyper Yielding Cereals Project in Tasmania, which demonstrated it was possible to more than double yields in some situations through sowing the right cultivars and tailored management strategies.
“This initiative is about trying to improve our productivity, increase our yields and close what we believe is a significant yield gap in some high yield potential grain growing environments,” Mr Poole said.
“We want to not only lift productivity, but also stabilise productivity.”
A core part of the HYC research will be identifying high yield potential cultivars suited to local environments and determining the most appropriate agronomic management tactics – including paddock selection and preparation, nutrition strategies, canopy management, and disease, weed and pest control.
Well known CSIRO chief research scientist John Kirkegaard will be a keynote speaker at the Wallendbeen field day where he will discuss the yield potential of crops in the region and some basic principles for achieving higher yields.
Growers and advisers will also have an opportunity to view canola research trials established by Brill Ag that aim to answer questions such as: what are the germplasm types and management inputs that maximise biomass production (target 20 tonnes per hectare) and how best to convert biomass to grain in high rainfall zones.
Rohan Brill, from Brill Ag, will facilitate the field day presentations with Kat Fuhrmann and Tom Price from FAR Australia, who will demonstrate the wheat research program in the Wallendbeen region and share their early learnings for cultivar selection, disease management and nitrogen strategies.
Other guest presenters for the day include:
- Charlie Baldry – Wallendbeen grower. Charlie will share his experience of achieving higher levels of productivity and the role farming systems have played in those gains.
- Chris Duff – senior farm consultant at Delta Ag. Chris has been Charlie Baldry’s farm consultant for several years and will share his observations when it comes to obtaining higher yields of wheat and canola that are profitable.
- Kat Fuhrmann – senior field research officer (FAR Australia) will discuss disease management strategies with foliar fungicides in high rainfall zones.
The field day will start at 1.30pm at the canola research site on Ryans Lane, off the Old Gundagai Rd south of Wallendbeen.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, numbers are limited and the event is only open to NSW residents with registration compulsory. Register or contact event co-ordinator Rachel Hamilton, 0428 843456 or email rachel.hamilton@faraustralia.com.au.
To hear more about the HYC initiative tune into a GRDC podcast with Mr Poole and HYC extension co-ordinator Jon Midwood, from TechCrop Services.
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