Crop establishment on non-wetting sand

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 EP farmers identified as a problem with stubble retained systems was sowing into non-wetting sands and the resulting uneven and reduced germination. A trial was undertaken from 2013 to 2015 at Murlong (near Lock) to compare how crop establishment and performance is affected by time of sowing, sowing rate, row position and sowing depth on a non-wetting sand. The trial site was moved in 2016 to another non-wetting site near Lock.