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SANTFA 2007 Journal |
Summer Edition Month: January Vol: 4 No: 1 |
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 No stock and No-till | |||||||||
| Title: No stock and no-till - clearing the decks for continuous cropping | Author: Michael Bennet | ||||||||
| When Geoff Bammann and his sons found their sheep were compromising their cropping program they decided to clear the decks for better crop management. | |||||||||
| Cleve farmer Geoff Bammann and his sons, Paul and Neville, have quit their sheep to concentrate on continuous cropping. The partners crop a total of 3,500 ha on several blocks east and west of Cleve. They have opted for no stock, including no agistment, on their 2,200 ha home property but do have stock on 1,300 ha of leased country where the owner has negotiated to run some... | |||||||||
| No-till mixed farming | |||||||||
| Title: Sheep and crop complementary in no-till mixed farming | Author: Michael Bennet | ||||||||
| For Shane Nelligan,Edillilie farmer, Eyre Peninsula SA, sheep are an important managment tool as well as providing a valuable alternative source of income. | |||||||||
| Three years ago Edillilie farmer and SANTFA committee member Shane Nelligan was moving out of sheep and had run his Merino flock down to 250 ewes. Today he has a thousand ewes mated to White Dorper rams. The change of direction came in response to the development of herbicide resistance in his annual ryegrass population, which prompted a review of the total farm enterprise.<... | |||||||||
| No-till case study | |||||||||
| Title: Innovation key to success in the business of farming | Author: Mike Krause, Applied Economic Solutions | ||||||||
| This is the third of three case studies carried out by agricultural economist Mike Krause, principal of Applied Economic Solutions, as part of a GRDC-supported research project to assess the economic impacts of no-till farming in the SA environment. | |||||||||
| Introduction | |||||||||
| Murray and Ann are the fourth generation of I’Ansons to farm ‘Prospect Hill’, 8km north of Marrabel. They are in the process of handing over the operation to Kym and Katie I’Anson, the fourth generation. Murray, Ann, Kym and Katie have been jointly farming Prospect Hill for the past six years. Kym has grown up on the property but spent some time at the University of New England (Armida... | |||||||||
| No-till research | |||||||||
| Title: Wheat response to double row spacing under ribbon sowing | Author: Jack Desbiolles | ||||||||
| Jack Desbiolles, Agricultural Machinery R&D Centre, UniSA | |||||||||
| Introduction | |||||||||
| Under dryland farming conditions, edge-row effects provide benefts to plants through access to extra soil volume (moisture, nutrients) and increased sunlight exposure during the growing season. These effects are frequently observed on small research plots and are reported beside traffc lanes in controlled traffc paddocks. Wide row cropping offers lower draft, higher ... | |||||||||
SANTFA 2007 Journal |
Autumn Edition Month: April Vol: 4 No: 2 |
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| No-till scholarships | |||||||||
| Title: Farmers helping farmers reach sustainability | Author: Greg Butler, SANTFA R&D | ||||||||
| Effective conservation agriculture requires expertise, and several experienced farmers have gained signigicant insight to what is required from more than a decade of sustainable production. | |||||||||
| In terms of total dryland – rain fed - production, about half of Australia’s grains area is managed under some form of reduced tillage, stubble retention or controlled traffic. We all accept that there are challenges with conservation agriculture and this is particularly true through the adoption phase. Operators new to conservation farming often demonstrate their committment t... | |||||||||
| Leasing to learn | |||||||||
| Title: Getting into no-till | Author: Mike Roberts CRC | ||||||||
| So you’ve been looking over fences for a few years weighing up the pros and cons of no-till farming for your situation. Now you’re wondering how to test the water, tackle the learning curve and tag onto the peloton before they get too far ahead, right? Exploring different pathways to best-practice farming suggests ‘horses for courses’ as the basic ground rule. Some farmers opt to modify existing machines; others purchase new machinery and some syndicate with other farmers. We’ll look at the finer points of these and other ways of ‘opting in’ to no-till a bit further down the track. In this edition we explore why some farmers are ‘Leasing to Learn’. Farmers consider leasing for a variety of reasons usually involving finances or changing family circumstances. It can also be a low-risk way of learning more about best-practice farming and no-till, as the following case studies show. There are at least two options for growers looking to lease out their land. One is to lease to a neighbour. The other is to lease to a large corporate farming entity. If the objective is to learn more about no-till or other aspects of sustainable farming it pays to ensure the lessee has the required skill set and expertise. | |||||||||
| Leasing Option A: The Neighbour Model | |||||||||
| When Kym and Deb Baum made the decision to lease out their farm it was not with the intention of learning how to become no-till farmers. That outcome, and the way it came about, makes an interesting story which may hold lessons for farmers considering future options. | |||||||||
| Leasing to Learn | |||||||||
| Title: Corporate Lessee 'managing the gene pool' | Author: Mike Roberts CRC | ||||||||
| The second option to Leasing, the corporate model, gives opportunity to retain the asset, use effecient farming methods, and keep abreast of technology without the burden of re-financing equipment and essentially remaining on the farm and in the community. | |||||||||
| Leasing Option B: The Corporate Model | |||||||||
| Mention corporate farming in some circles and it quickly conjures up images of uncaring investors acquiring and ‘mining’ large tracts of land, often in extenuating circumstances for their displaced former owners. Not a good time to check out the video of Grapes of Wrath! So it was with great interest that I read Brad Collis’ recent article in Ground Cover on Moree-based farm management ... | |||||||||
SANTFA 2007 Journal |
Winter Edition Month: July Vol: 4 No: 3 |
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| Grazing Cereals | |||||||||
| Title: Mind-set key to success with grazing cereals | Author: Graeme Jennings | ||||||||
| Grazing cereals can provide valuable stock feed. In some conditions early grazing can also increase grain yields. In other circumstances grazing can reduce grain production. The outcome of a ‘graze and grain’ scenario is strongly influenced by rainfall, time and duration of grazing and the cereal being grazed. | |||||||||
| Cereals, and other grasses, produce more winter and total biomass than annual pasture legumes and can provide invaluable ‘early feed’ for livestock in autumn and early winter. But can cereals provide ‘early feed’ and set grain? The answer is ‘yes, but …’ There are in fact several ‘buts’, including annual rainfall, the timing and duration of grazing, time of sowing... | |||||||||
| No-till Experience | |||||||||
| Title: No doubt on no-till | Author: Mike Roberts CRC | ||||||||
| Conservation farming practise had it's beginnings in the 1980's at Wirrabarra, SA. Russell Zwar has never known anything different to the no-till system that was established before he returned to the farm after study. | |||||||||
| “I’ve never worked a paddock in my life. “Dad started no-tilling before I returned to the farm and I’ve never really known any different,” Russell Zwar said when asked how the practice of no-till evolved on the family property at Wirrabara in SA’s Mid North. His father Don remembers that as an apprentice farmer Russell was never able to get his ‘eye in’ on cultivators and ha... | |||||||||
| Innovation | |||||||||
| Title: 'Seriel experimenter' passing on good ideas | Author: Mike Roberts CRC | ||||||||
| A change of perception has led to changes to faming practices, buisness direction and lifestyle for northern Yourke Peninsula farmer's Mark and merridee Schilling. | |||||||||
| “I used to think a brown paddock with rows of grass coming up was the most beautiful thing in the world but now I think a grey-white stubble with green crops coming through in rows beats it hands down!” The change from conventional farming to no-till indicated by this change in perspective has led to changes in Mark and Merridee Schillings’ farming practices, business direction and lif... | |||||||||
| Crop Nutrition | |||||||||
| Title: Nutrition: getting it right | Author: Mick Faulkner, Agrilink Agricultural Consultants Pty Ltd | ||||||||
| Plant disease or nutrition deficiency? Mick Faulkner, of Agrilink Agicultural Consultants Pty Ltd provides the heads up on the major elements required for plant growth and production. | |||||||||
| It appears that every few years there is a nutrition cycle where solid principles give way to fads and expensive programs. I am always concerned that, because there are so few plant nutrition and physiology specialists, we can be easily led by those with the latest miracle product or mind-blowing fertiliser regime. Let’s stick to fact when discussing and implementing nutrition practice... | |||||||||
SANTFA 2007 Journal |
Spring Edition Month: November Vol: 4 No: 4 |
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| No-till practices | |||||||||
| Title: No-till = no blow! | Author: Mike Roberts CRC | ||||||||
| Upper SE farmers Andrew and Gary Hansen discuss the challenges and benefits of adopting and adapting no-till techniques on a mixture of sandhills and very stony country. | |||||||||
| “When we were conventionally cropping, blowing sand on those windy days in winter would make you want to lock yourself up in the workshop and not come out. “Since we’ve been no-tilling we don’t worry because we’re planting into stubble cover and the paddocks aren’t going to move.” This is just one of the benefits Andrew Hansen has observed from the transition to no-till farm... | |||||||||
| GM Debate | |||||||||
| Title: Resistance 'manageable' | Author: Graeme Jennings | ||||||||
| Resistant weeds researcher Chris Preston discusses the implications of glyphosate resistance crops in managing herbicide resistance. | |||||||||
| Glyphosate-resistant crops have the potential to accelerate development of glyphosate-resistant weed populations because they open up opportunities for more frequent use of the chemical. According to Dr Chris Preston, a University of Adelaide and Weeds CRC researcher, this is demonstrated by what is happening in the US, where widespread use of the Roundup Ready (RR) system has resulted... | |||||||||
| GM Debate | |||||||||
| Title: Many Dimensions to GM Debate | Author: Graeme Jennings | ||||||||
| A look at the GM debate in Australia from a range of views including validity of comparisons with GM use in Canada. | |||||||||
| “Genetically Modified’. The words seem to generate either fear or hope, depending on the listener. So what is the truth about genetically modified (GM) food crops? Or is there more than one truth? Are GM crops the way to superior agronomy and profit or the start of a slippery slope towards contaminated, dangerous food and domination of the food chain by international corpor... | |||||||||
| GM Debate | |||||||||
| Title: Major benefits from GM crops | Author: Graeme Jennings | ||||||||
| A discussion of the reasons why Australia stands to benefit from the introduction of GM crops | |||||||||
| Australian growers would benefit greatly from access to GM varieties, according to Rick Roush. Professor Roush, Dean of the faculty of Land and Food Resources at the University of Melbourne, believes the current bans on production of GM food crops in Australia are denying growers access to genetic material with the potential to improve their ability to farm profitably in the face of on-... | |||||||||
| GM Debate | |||||||||
| Title: Still concerns on GM Technology | Author: Graeme Jennings | ||||||||
| A discussion of concerns about the introduction of GM crops in Australia looking at issues of market demand, lack of independent trial work, segregation, contamination and testing. | |||||||||
| Despite repeated reassurances from science, commerce and government, there remain significant concerns about genetically modified organisms in the food chain. All these concerns, whether relating to health, the environment or economic issues, appear to be based in a fear of the unknown. GM is new technology and, given that GM soy and GM canola – the two main GM food crops to ... | |||||||||
| Discs vs. tines | |||||||||
| Title: Balancing the benefits of discs and tines | Author: Michael Bennet, SANTFA | ||||||||
| Seeding technology has come a long way since the late 1980s, with significant refinements in disc seeders to accommodate IBS (incorporated by sowing) herbicides and a change in tined seeders from low breakout cultivator tines to hydraulic precision sowing tines These developments provide the backdrop for a recent decision by a pioneer of disc seeding on Eyre Peninsula to put his disc seeder in the shed and change to a tined machine. | |||||||||
| David Jericho pioneered no-till seeding with discs on Eyre Peninsula in an era when the only way to find out how something worked was to bite the bullet and try it yourself. Today his main seeder is a tined machine with knife points. David, his wife Leah, and son Andrew, farm two properties between Kimba and Cleve on Eastern Eyre Peninsula. The family’s first fo... | |||||||||
| Cover Crops | |||||||||
| Title: Saia oats and cover crops - the Eyre Peninsula experience | Author: Michael Bennet, SANTFA | ||||||||
| Michael Bennet discusses the experiences of two EP farmers using Saia oats as a break crop and weed control system using a knife roller to create a soil surface mulch. | |||||||||
| There has been a great deal of enthusiasm for including Saia oats (Avena strigosa) in the farming system as a break crop. There also appears to be potential to use it as the basis of an alternative weed control system that involves rolling onto the surface of the paddock with a knife roller to create a mulch that can provide a non-herbicidal weed control. This system is use... | |||||||||
| Stubble management | |||||||||
| Title: Stubble retention begins at harvest | Author: Mike Ashworth, WANTFA | ||||||||
| Stubble retention is a key component of no-till systems and management of this resource needs to start at harvest. | |||||||||
| With low levels of crop residue available to protect paddocks this summer, it will be important to carefully manage stubbles to prevent erosion occurring. The benefits of stubble retention and weed control for storing soil moisture were obvious this year where there were large rainfall events over summer. Farmers who retained stubble and controlled weeds were able to establish cro... | |||||||||
| Resource management | |||||||||
| Title: Demystifiying natural resources management | Author: Leighton Pearce, Sustainable Farming Project Officer | ||||||||
| Sustainable Farming Project Officer Leighton Pearce discusses the broad vision of the NRM Plan as launched in 2006. He gives contact information for the state NRM boards, notes issues of concern and the role of SANTFA in working with the NRM plan. | |||||||||
| The increasing growth and importance of natural resources management (NRM) has caught land managers by surprise. ‘Here come the greenies’ you may say, yet we are all involved in some way in protecting the assets that we manage. The importance and involvement of farmers as natural resource managers can neither be underestimated nor denied and SANTFA members are practicing NRM daily. | |||||||||