Cropping and pastures

No-till and minimum till cropping techniques are well-established agricultural practices on most of Eyre Peninsula. However, adverse weather conditions, pest control issues and resistance weeds still have the potential to undermine significant soil cover progress. At worst, this results in paddock drift and contributes to top soil and nutrient loss.

Through our Regenerative Agriculture Program, we work with farmers and research agencies to investigate alternative farming techniques and communicate these findings back to farmers. There is no simple fix - it is often a compromise of time available, weather, rotations, farming systems, machinery available and cost.

Below is a list of resources including fact sheets and case studies.

• This MLA page focuses on whether a pasture is likely to recover from extended dry conditions including an assessment that land managers can undertake themselves.
• This MLA page looks at improved perennial pastures.
• This fact sheet from Upper North Farming Systems is about monitoring stubble in the post-harvest period.
• More or less stubble? This fact sheet from Upper North Farming Systems looks at how much stubble to retain post-harvest.
• Growing summer forage crops - should I or shouldn't I? This clip from Sheep Connect SA explores this topic. It includes information from agronomist Craig Altman and producers from Cleve and Wangary.
• This case study is from a grain and sheep property at Tuckey in eastern Eyre Peninsula, featuring a positive experience in sowing a summer crop.
• This case study is about effecting nodulation of legumes on Upper Eyre Peninsula. The key outcome was that monitoring nodulation on medics and pulses allows for better decision making to improve nitrogen fixation in break crops for cereal production.
• This case study looked at chaff lining for weed management at harvest at an eastern Eyre Peninsula property. The key outcome was that efficiencies were made using a chaff deck to control weeds.
• This fact sheet from MLA focuses on looking after drought pastures.

Native grasses

These fact sheets from Upper North Farming Systems focus on native grasses.

• Native grass nutrition fact sheet summarises feed test information for 12 common native grasses growing in the Upper North of South Australia.
• Native grass nutrition fact sheet 2 summarises feed test information for 10 common native grasses growing in native pastures in Upper North of South Australia.
• Native pasture identification fact sheet will give you some information so you can identify the common native grasses in your area.

Herbicide resistance

Planning to spray your weeds? Spend some valuable time understanding the latest information about herbicide resistance to maximise your dollar and effectiveness. Currently in Australia there are about 50 weed species with resistance to herbicides from 11 modes of action. These include 23 grass species.

These links from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) explore this topic:

• Herbicide resistance - where we are, where we are going and what we can do about it. This update paper includes a table of herbicide resistance weeds in Australia and information about what can be done to manage these weeds.
• Weed survivors could signal herbicide resistance issues. This article encourages growers who have detected weeds that have survived herbicide applications to have these weeds tested in-season for herbicide resistance.
• Update on herbicide resistance status in the Western Australian wheatbelt. The Western Australian wheatbelt region is very similar in conditions to the Eyre Peninsula. The key messages in this update paper are that there are high levels of resistance to Group A and B herbicides for ryegrass and wild radish; while resistance in wild oat, brome grass and barley grass are low for most commonly used herbicides.

Pest snail management

Burn your paddocks for snail control at the wrong time and it could be good-bye top soil! Decrease the risk by understanding the arsenal of ways to control those pesky snail with this information from the GRDC.