Barley is becoming a far more important component of the Western Australian cropping system, which makes variety selection and information to support growers all the more important.

A new three year project funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) aims to develop management guidelines to support profitable and efficient barley production in WA.

The essential crop management tool – green bridge control is integral to pest and disease management

Brendan Johns, farmer, South Australia

GRDC is funding a new series of precision agriculture workshops in the Southern Region. The workshops have been run successfully in South Australia by the Southern Precision Agriculture Association since 2007. Brendan Johns is a South Australian farmer who has taken part in the SA workshops. In this edition of Driving Agronomy, Brendan explains how the workshops have helped him develop precision agriculture practices on his farm.

Advances in management practices mean growers have been making steady improvements in water-use efficiency over the past 30 years.

However, future climate variability in southern Australia is likely to deliver warmer and drier springs. So storing as much water in the soil as possible prior to sowing will become vital if maximum productivity is to be achieved.

Most soils around the world are deficient in phosphorus for the purposes of crop production, and the problem is severe in Australia. To overcome these deficiencies, farmers have been applying phosphorus fertilisers for more than a century.

Grain growers who also run livestock on their properties are being encouraged to think how perennial pastures could fit into their cropping system.

With most areas of southern Australia dominated by native and introduced annual pastures, Dr Sarita Bennett, from the Future Farms CRC and University of Western Australia, is challenging growers’ thinking when it comes to perennials.

Targeted farm safety awareness campaigns have helped reduce the average number of fatalities on Australian properties from 150 to an average of just below 100 in the past 10 years.

However, the leading cause of deaths on Australian farms remains in accidents involving tractors and farm vehicles, while the farm workshop is the most common place for farm injuries to eyes and hands. Unguarded grain augers and PTO shafts are the most common cause of injury resulting in amputation.

Associate Professor Pauline Mele, Victorian Department of Primary Industries.

Scientists working with the GRDC funded Soil Biology Initiative hope to better understand what makes one soil better able to suppress the damage done to crops from soil borne disease, than other soils. While scientists recognise that healthy soil is better able to suppress disease, they suspect that microbial activity is what gives soils suppressive abilities. How to harness and spread that suppressive ability across a landscape is a major component of the new Soil Biology Initiative.

Contact: Associate Professor Pauline Mele from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. Ph: 03 9210 9219. email

Trials to combat the hard-to-control weed windmill grass in central west NSW will shortly be underway, run by the Grain Orana Alliance (GOA).

Maurie Street, Grain Orana Alliance (GOA) research and extension officer says conventional herbicide mixes are not working so the weed is causing headaches for the region’s grain growers.

Dr Scott McCoombe, National Centre for Farmer Health

The diverse range of agricultural health issues are often not covered in traditional medical courses. But now a new post graduate course offered by Deakin University is seeking to address that problem. The course is two-pronged. Firstly it will help better inform medical professionals about the myriad of health risks existing on every farm and secondly better equip agricultural professionals, who are on the front line dealing with farmers on a daily basis, with the ability to recognise potential medical or OH&S issues encouraging farmers to seek help or make workplace changes. 

Contact: Dr Scott McCoombe, National Centre for Farmer Health, Ph: (03) 5551 8533. email

Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) research shows assessing the ‘black layer’ in sorghum grain is the most practical tool for scheduling timing of sorghum spray out.

GRDC-supported research by the Northern Grower Alliance (NGA) has responded to local grower requests for investigations into the timing of sorghum spray-out.