In this section:
Land Management
Summer cropping in SA
Warm season cropping is the cultivation of summer crops in southern Australian cropping areas. The cultivation of these crops, more traditionally grown in northern areas of Australia, has been put forward as a potential solution to some of the problems currently facing producers.
Eyre Peninsula and warm season cropping: What's in it for us? (.PDF 284.0KB) gives guidelines for soil preparation, crop types and considerations when sowing summer crops.
Tillage
Progressive tillage (previously known as tillage rotation) is a novel tillage regime, superior to no-till and conventional cultivation, developed by SARDI and GRDC (Grains Research & Development Corporation) for economically removing compacted subsoil.
The field experiments (projects DAS224 and DAS00012) set up to test the benefits of varying tillage depths to ameliorate compaction and increase the depth of soil exploitable by plant roots showed that removing compacted soil layer will increase yield quality and quantity - and financial return.
Improved yield and yield quality through amelioration of degraded subsoil - a summary of selected 1997 to 2004 results (.DOC 2.9MB) discusses the project and results.
How to identify soil compaction and fix it with progressive tillage: An extension kit for farm managers and advisors (PDF. 716.4KB) will help farmers increase their farm income and profit and reduce erosion
This educational kit concentrates on identifying and fixing soil compaction. It helps land managers assess soil condition easily, quickly, reliably and cheaply on a paddock scale and provides direction for soils rehabilitation.
Nutrient run-off in pasture based systems
Plant tissue testing or plant analysis is a way to measure how plants use a range of nutrients. It can be used to find the cause for a growth problem, to test for 'invisible hunger signs' which may be limiting plant growth, or to find toxicities in apparently healthy pasture plants. The fact sheet, Plant testing on flood irrigated pastures of the Lower Murray (.DOC 95.0KB), discusses why, how to, where to and when to plant test, and what the results mean.
A soil test can indicate whether paddocks are of low, adequate or high fertility status. Soil testing on flood irrigated pastures of the Lower Murray (.DOC 109.5KB) discusses why, how to, where to and when to soil test, and what soil test is enough.
Hostile subsoils
Subsoil constraints (SSCs) pose a major threat to production in SA. SSCs are any soil physical or chemical characteristics (e.g. salinity, sodicity, high soil strength, toxic concentrations of boron) located below the seedbed that limit the ability of crops or pastures to access water and nutrients. Subsoil contstraints: limiting crop profitability on alkaline soils in South Eastern Australia (.PDF 3.8MB) covers how to identify subsoil constraints and what can be done to improve the profitability of cropping on soils with subsoil constraints.
