Soil-specific strategies continue to pay at Karoonda

To identify opportunities to reduce risk and increase profitability by evaluating the soils and conditions where continuous cereal systems perform best and where inputs can be most cost-effectively targeted. Trials were established at Karoonda (Lowaldie) to test soil-specific strategies and tactics for reducing risk and increasing profitability in cereal-based rotations over the 2010-2013 growing seasons. Potential management practices including nil fertiliser, district practice, increased sowing N, increased N applied in-season and pasture breaks in 2009 and 2010 were applied on 150m long plots running across a range of soil types covering a dune-swale system. Simulation modeling was also used together with field results to identify the best long-term strategies for soil zones.