It is well understood that good crop establishment favours the potential of a high yielding crop and contributes to a competitive environment for weeds.
In the new GRDC investment ‘optimising plant establishment, density and spacings to maximise crop yield and profit in the southern and western regions’, the opportunities of precision planting and the potential gains by improving conventional seeders is under investigation.
A precision planter differs to conventional air seeding systems in that it has a rate meter on every shoot that allows one seed to be released at a time (singulation). Precision planters are more commonly used in summer crops and are still being fine-tuned for small seeded crops, thus the need for the research in the southern grains environment.
There is a growing interest in the potential of precision planting to both reduce variation in seeding depths, ensure even spaces between small seeds, improve seeding rate accuracy and reduce seed costs in crops such as hybrid canola, given the higher seed cost.
This five-year project collaboration will occur across Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, and is being led by the University of Adelaide. It includes the University of South Australia, Hart Field-Site Group, Southern Farming Systems, Northern Sustainable Soils, Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA), Liebe Group, Facey Group, Corrigin Farm Improvement Group and the Birchip Cropping Group (BCG).
The aim of the project is to understand crop establishment, plant density and row spacings to maximise canola and pulse yield and profit in the southern region, while canola and wheat will be the crops explored in the western region. The purpose is to determine the typical rates of crop establishment achieved by growers, the factors influencing this and exploring methods to improve the rate of crop establishment.
BCG will be managing two precision planting trials in 2018 to address some of the above-mentioned challenges.
The first trial includes the use of a precision plot planter built by Boort local Steve Lanyon of Spot on Ag. This trial will compare the new precision (singulation) seeder and a cone seeder, two different row spacings (9 inch and 12 inch) and six plant densities. Growers will be given an opportunity to visit this trial at the BCG Main Field Day on Wednesday 12 September.
A large farmer-scale demonstration comparison of different systems to evaluate crop emergence will be carried out in the Wimmera. The high-speed precision planter Väderstad Tempo will be compared to a number of disc and tyne air seeders. Â
The final component of this project includes surveying 200 paddocks, 100 in the GRDC western region and 100 in the southern region. This survey will allow the project team to better understand current practices given that significant gains could still be achieved in improving the operation of conventional seeders.
Southern Farming Systems will be surveying 15 paddocks (beans and lentils), while BCG will survey 35 paddocks of canola or lentils. The survey includes collecting data on establishment counts, interplant distance, germination percentage and soil moisture. These counts will occur seven to 14 days after emergence.
There will be a presentation on this research at the BCG Main Field Day on Wednesday 12 September at Narraport, 18km north west of Birchip. For more information about the GRDC ‘optimising plant establishment, density and spacings to maximise crop yield and profit in the southern and western regions’ phone BCG on 03 5492 2787.
This article was published in the Stock and Land, 17 May 2018.Â
.@theGRDC has funded research into precision planters to optimise plant establishment, density & spacing to max. crop yield & profit. We sowed canola & lentils at the #BCGMFD18 site with Stefan Schmitt from @AgConsulting_Co. These trials will be on display 12 Sept at Narraport. pic.twitter.com/1NWpru4wNr
— Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) (@BCG_Birchip) May 22, 2018
