Establishing pasture into stubble at Mount Cooper

The GRDC project ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ aims to produce sustainable management guidelines to control pests, weeds and diseases while retaining stubble to maintain or improve soil health, and reduce exposure to wind erosion. The major outcome to be achieved is increased knowledge and skills allowing farmers and advisers to improve farm profitability while retaining stubble in farming systems on upper Eyre Peninsula (EP).One issue upper EP farmers identified as a problem was sowing into retained pasture residue with pasture vines causing issues with blockages at sowing and uneven germination. Also establishing legume pastures into heavy stubble residues has also an issue in this region. The trial at Mount Cooper was designed to compare plant establishment and production, and weed and pest control effectiveness in the presence and absence of previous crop or legume pasture residues.