Journal article
Soil-test critical values for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and canola (Brassica napus) in the high-rainfall cropping zone of southern Australia
MR McCaskill, P Riffkin, A Pearce, B Christy, R Norton, A Speirs, A Clough, J Midwood, A Merry, D Suraweera, D Partington
Crop and Pasture Science | CSIRO PUBLISHING | Published : 2020
DOI: 10.1071/CP20229
Abstract
Nutrient deficiencies are considered a reason for commercial yields of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and canola (Brassica napus L.) in the high-rainfall zone (HRZ) of southern Australia being well below predicted potential yields. With the aim of developing soil-test interpretation guidelines suitable for HRZ conditions, nutrient-response experiments, 15 with wheat and 12 with canola, were conducted between 2015 and 2018. These experiments quantified responses to nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in pre-sowing soil tests. The highest yielding treatment of the wheat experiments averaged 7.1 t/ha (range 2.6-10.8 t/ha), and of the canola experimen..
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Grants
Awarded by Grains Research and Development Corporation
Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Jamie Smith, Irma Grimmer, Tony Dickson, Ian Ludwig, Caroline Hilton and Rebecca Lovell for technical assistance, and Jade Killoran and Aaron Vague of Southern Farming Systems for conducting the experiments at Inverleigh and Glenthompson. We thank the many farmers who hosted these experiments, and the Nutrient Advantage Laboratory at Werribee for undertaking the soil analyses. We also thank Mark Conyers for providing an Excel version of the BFDC Interrogator algorithm as a cross-check for calculating critical values. This research was funded through the Grains Research & Development Corporation (DAV00141) and the State Government of Victoria.