A new year and research season is upon us, and BCG is thrilled to be collaborating with long-term supporter and proprietor of Birchip’s M&P Jolly (sold to Landmark) Peter Jolly to hold the main research site for 2018.
The paddock, located on the Nullawil-Birchip road at Narraport (approximately 18km from Birchip) is a light clay soil type and will be the location of the Main Field Day on Wednesday 12 September 2018.
Each year the BCG research program aims to deliver applied outcomes for growers to progress their farm businesses and develop strategies for ongoing resilience.
“BCG carries out a broad range of research trials to provide farmers with solutions and strategies to combat on-farm challenges and improve business decisions,” Ms Browne said.
There are two soil types within the paddock, both of which are a light clay. The ‘grey’ soil has a plant available water (PAW) of 66mm while the red soil has 76mm. The paddock was a fallow in 2017 and was sown to barley in 2016 which was a high yielding crop.
The grey soil has 162kg N/ha and the red has 213kg N/ha to a depth of 70cm. This is relatively high due to a great amount of mineralisation.
The Colwell P is low in the grey paddock at 18mg/kg and 25mg/kg for red whilst the availability of the amount of phosphorus is determined by the PBI which is 99 on the grey and 64 in the red.
The paddock is very high in sulphur at 160 and 230mg/kg between grey and red, respectively.
Research trials already sown at the site includes two sowing times of a GRDC-funded managing early sown wheat trial with another two to be sown in coming weeks. The purpose of this trial is to determine how long-season winter wheat varieties perform at different sowing times.
Other trials that will be sown include a crop type by time of sowing trial to determine the impact of frost on the various crop types, National Variety Trials plus a number of agronomic, weed and nutrition based trials which are in the process of being finalised. All in all, there will be more than a dozen trials in the paddock.
The BCG Main Field Day will be held on Wednesday 12 September 2018 at the paddock. The program for this event is currently being develop and will be released in coming months.
For more information on the BCG research program phone the office on (03) 5492 2787.
