Cropping trials

G’day! This is Callan Thompson, Mixed Farm Advisor for Central West Local Land Services.

Central West Local Land Services has collaborated with New South Wales DPI to set up two dual-purpose cereal trials this season—one site at Bergen Gate and one site at Purlewaugh. Today, I’m checking the Purlewaugh site.

We have a number of varieties in this trial that will be very familiar to producers, but we’ve also got some new varieties as well. We’ve got varieties like Wedgetail, which is a wheat that works well in the district, but we’ve also got new varieties like Kittyhawk so that we can compare them.

An interesting inclusion in this trial is RGT Planet barley. Planet was included because we had been hearing that quite a few producers were planning to sow it for quick feed, particularly because traditional dual-purpose varieties of oats, wheat, and barley have been short. Some producers were hoping to get a graze off it and then lock it up for grain, like they normally would with their dual-purpose varieties.

However, due to Planet not having a reliance on a vernalization period to go to head, we’re concerned there’s a significant risk of frost at the end of the season. So, we’ve put it in the trial just to see how it performs as a dual-purpose option.

Interestingly, most varieties in the trial are only at one true leaf stage, whereas Planet is at two true leaf stage—so it’s definitely got up and going faster than the dual-purpose varieties.

We’ll be keeping you updated on how these trials progress through videos on our Facebook page. If you’d like further information, you can contact me on 0417 348 687.

G’day! My name’s Callan Thompson, Mixed Farm Advisor with Central West Local Land Services, and I’m Tim Bottom, Cropping Advisor with Central West Local Land Services.

Today we’re at our dual-purpose trial at Purlewaugh. We’ve been doing some plant counts to work out whether our establishment has been acceptable. Tomorrow, Tim and Ron will be at our Bogan Gate site doing the same thing.

Generally, in a cropping situation, you do plant counts to make sure your populations are high enough to achieve the yield you’re aiming for. But in a trial situation, we want to make sure we’re ruling out variables that could influence the results at the end of the season—such as plant numbers and whether one variety might be advantaged by having more or fewer plants than others.

Most of the varieties in the trial are at GS22, which is the growth stage where they generally have one tiller. There are a couple of varieties that are less than that, including some oats. One of the standouts, as we mentioned in the last video, is Planet barley. It’s sitting at GS23 with two tillers and is going ahead really quickly, so it’ll be interesting to see how that comes in at the end of the year.

Tim, have you seen anything interesting in the trial today?
Yeah, Callan, we’ve actually seen quite a few aphid numbers come into the crop at the moment. We’re monitoring that as we go because we’re also seeing quite beneficial numbers as well. We’re seeing a lot of ladybirds, quite a number of spiders, and a few lacewings too. Comparing it to last week when I was at Bogan Gate, aphid numbers were quite high then, but beneficials have done a good job so far. We also treated the seed, so we’re keeping that in mind and monitoring to see whether a chemical option or insecticide is required going forward. At the moment, we’re just watching.

Now over to Bogan Gate:
Hi everyone, I’m Tim Bottom, Cropping Advisor with Central West Local Land Services, and I’m Ron Leech, Ag Advisor with Local Land Services. We’re at Bogan Gate today to look at our dual-purpose trial site. We’re looking at different cereal varieties and how they fit into your system. We’re doing a few plant counts and insect checks and thought we’d share what we’ve seen today.

So, where do you reckon our plants are up to, Ron?
They’re up to about GS23, or roughly three tillers. They’ve really jumped out of the ground and are pumping along—it’s been a really good start with a great break. We’ve also seen quite a bit of insect activity. Last time I was here, there were quite a few aphids, but that’s dropped back a little thanks to 50mm of rain and some favourable wind. We’ve also seen quite a few beneficial insects—spiders and some transverse ladybirds—hopefully doing their job in the crop.

As the season progresses, we’ll keep you informed about what’s going on here at Bogan Gate. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll get more boots on the ground and have a real good look. Catch you next time—thanks everyone!

G’day! This is Callan Thompson, Mixed Farm Advisor with Central West Local Land Services.

It’s the 2nd of June and I’m inspecting the Central West Local Land Services and DPI dual-purpose trial at Purlewaugh. The trial was sown eight weeks ago, and the majority of varieties are at GS25, or about six tillers. We’ll be looking to graze this trial—and the one at Bogan Gate—in about a week. We’ll also look at taking the first of two dry matter cuts for these trials.

Today, I’m going to attempt to give you a virtual tour of the site by running through one of the replications—the cereal replication. At any time, you can pause the video for a more detailed look. We also have information about each variety on our website—just click the link below this video. The information has been extracted from NSW DPI’s Winter Crop Variety Sowing Guide 2020, which can also be accessed on the DPI website.

As you can see, weed levels are very low in the trial. This is partly due to a pre-emergent herbicide as well as a concerted effort by the landholder to control weeds in fallow and in-crop situations for a number of years prior to sowing this trial.

We’re already starting to see differences in varieties. The wheat varieties are tillering well and staying prostrate, as are the triticale and the Eurabbie oats. As mentioned in a previous video, Yarran barley had poor germination and therefore has a low plant population. Wizard and Genie oats are much more erect than other varieties and would be the best option for early feed. Both of these varieties are bred to produce feed rather than grain and are not classed as dual-purpose varieties.

Planet barley is at GS30, with the developing ear being formed at the base of the stem. In a dual-purpose crop, we would expect to see this in early August in this region, and this is when we would remove stock and lock the crop up for grain production. Again, as mentioned previously, we suspect that due to sowing early, Planet may suffer significant grain losses due to frost.

On a positive note for Planet, it has produced a lot of leaf and would have been a good option to sow early to gain ground cover and for early grazing—which is why a lot of people sowed Planet early this season.

If you’d like more information, feel free to contact me on 0417 348 687.