Griffith grain grower Phil Bourchier, like many of his peers, bases his on-farm decisions on personal experience, district practice and advice and knowledge from a mix of outside sources, all the while keeping a keen eye on his bottom line.
“You have to make ends meet. It is always good to try something new, so long as it’s doable and will eventually make us more money,” he explained.
The Central New South Wales grower runs a dryland cropping enterprise at Barellan, east of Griffith, with his wife Kathy and sons Shaun and Jake. As part of their operation the family grow barley, wheat, canola, lupins, peas and lentils.
Always keen to learn more about ways to improve crop production and profitability Mr Bourchier attended a Grains Research and Development Corporation-funded More Profit From Crop Nutrition (MPCN) roadshow at Rankin Springs.
He was keen to hear from industry experts because although his crops were performing well, he has always been committed to investigating ways to lift profitability.
“It doesn’t hurt to rub shoulders with industry leaders because you always learn something,” he said.
At the MPCN roadshow Incitec Pivot technical agronomist, Jim Laycock, emphasised how more profit from your nitrogen was about maximising nitrogen use efficiencies in a normally dry environment.
In his presentation, Mr Laycock encouraged growers to consider profitability by tactically applying nitrogen.
“You don’t want to breakeven with your fertiliser investment – you want to make money,” he said.
“Think about grain quality when applying nitrogen, a rough guide is to use 30-40kg of nitrogen to shift the protein by one per cent which could move your crop up to APW when it goes to the silo.”
The concept resonated with Mr Bourchier, who holds the sentiment “nitrogen is king” said using it strategically was made it easier by current affordable prices.
While the roadshow was held in August and focused on the Griffith-region’s typical dryland environment, the last part of 2016 season subsequently turned into one of the wettest on record with cool temperatures in September adding to a kind finish for the Bourchier family’s crops.
“It was difficult to get on the paddocks in the end, but I got 150 to 200kg of urea (69kg to 92kg N) over most of the cereals and up to 250kg of urea (115kg N) on to the canola,” he said.
In his presentation Mr Laycock also explained how growers could apply nitrogen fertiliser at flowering in cereals in order to match crop inputs with crop demand.
To fine-tune his paddock nutrition requirements to match potential crop yield, Mr Bourchier regularly tests soil at the start of each growing season.
The results, are then integrated with his agronomists’ advice and his own intuition before a decision is reached about action on-farm. Mr Bourchier said he had seen a decline in phosphorus and was also concerned about declining sulphur levels, with more being removed from paddocks than he had realised.
As a result, he has now made slight changes to his farming system to meet the nutrition demands of his crops and improve his soil structure.
He said opportunities to increase phosphorus and sulphur were limited during the growing season so he had changed direction and was increasing starter fertiliser rates to 10 or 12 units of sulphur and phosphorus.
“We normally rely on gypsum to meet our sulphur needs, but that has not proved enough so we’ve moved to supplying more at sowing,” he said.
In terms of crop choice, Mr Bourchier said his family had ‘jumped into the deep end’ with lentils, planting them for the first time in 2016 and increasing the sown area now to lift the base amount of nitrogen in the soil.
Another issue on his property is acidity with Mr Bourchier describing the situation as “the free aluminium in our sandy soils stunting and nearly killing plants in some patches”.
So it was timely for the grower to sit through a presentation at the MPCN Roadshow from Jamie Thornberry from Central West Farming Systems (CWFS) on ‘Lime it or lose it – how to use lime to your advantage to make sure you get the most out of the available nutrients’.
Acidic soils have many free positively charged ions present so when lime is added, it bonds with the cation thus reducing the acidity of the soil.
The information came at the right time for Mr Bourchier, who has now made the decision to apply four to five tonne per hectare of lime to his acidic soils this year.
Turning knowledge into on-farm action has tended to work well for the Bourchier family. But the clan patriarch understands one approach doesn’t suit all farming systems or situations.
“Not everyone has to do things the same way” he said.
“With some planning, asking questions and having an inquisitive mind, nutrition changes can be made on-farm to improve both production and profitability.”
It is an approach supported by Birchip Cropping Group project manager Louisa Ferrier.
“There is an enormous amount of relevant, high quality research and development happening in southern Australia through ongoing investment by organisations like by BCG and GRDC and other vital contributors to industry knowledge and understanding,” she explained.
“The next step is making sure we deliver this new R&D in a way growers, like Phil Bourchier can access so it can have an impact on-farm and ultimately improve productivity and profitability and ensure the long-term sustainability of farm businesses.”
