De-risking the seeding program

Adoption of key management practices for the success of dry early sown crops

Project Funder: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry – Future Drought Fund
Project Lead: Ag Excellence Alliance
Project Code: 4IMX2CLR
Project Duration: 2023-2025
Project Location: Temora Agricultural Innovation Centre

Background

Dry and early sowing of cereal crops is a practice commonly employed across southern Australian cropping regions to combat the increasingly erratic and delayed opening season rainfall. Whilst there has been a large amount of research and development undertaken on dry and early sowing, significant opportunities remain to engage growers in the adoption of strategic management approaches that best suit local grower needs, management preferences and local climatic and environmental conditions.

The desire to improve education surrounding dry sowing has seen the conception of the ‘De-risking the seeding program’ project. FarmLink will be one of 15 farming system groups involved with the project, which is supported by Ag Excellence Alliance, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. The aim of this project is to deliver a program that accelerates the adoption of strategic dry and early sowing crop management strategies. As part of this project, in 2024, FarmLink will implement a long coleoptile wheat demonstration site and a plot trial to better understand the influence of ground cover on moisture retention.