Demonstrating resilient and sustainable production through disc seeding systems.
Aim:
The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the production and environmental values of disc seeding systems. WANTFA wants to increase grower confidence by providing trial data and sharing grower experiences to review the performance of different disc seeding systems in a range of situations.
Background:
WANTFA could see the potential for disc seeders to provide growers with production and environmental advantages, due to their ability to retain greater levels of stubble, to reduce soil disturbance and to limit water loss at seeding. At present there is a high level of interest in disc seeding systems from no-till growers. Many factors however, including weed control, crop safety, and soil types have been barriers to adoption of disc seeders for some growers. This project is important to build understanding of disc operational factors, such as stubble handling, maintenance, seed placement and herbicide incorporation to encourage increased adoption of disc seeders for their resource management advantages.
Objectives:
- To demonstrate on-ground suitability of disc types to locations, climatic conditions and soil types.
- To build on the current knowledge of disc seeding systems to effectively identify where such technology can be used to provide an advantage to farm production.
- To investigate the environmental and economic advantages of disc seeding as part of a range of farming system scenarios.
Activities:
- Demonstrations held at WANTFA’s Technology Demonstration Site (Meckering) and other on-farm locations.
- Extension of information collected from the demonstrations through field days, workshops and publications.
- Grower interviews to examine different farm management systems and to record disc seeder experiences in the form of case studies.
Length of the project: 2 years
Funding body: Australian Government (Caring for our Country funds)
Contact:
Jade Dempster (WANTFA), jade.dempster@wantfa.com.au
Mike Ashworth (WANTFA), mike.ashworth@wantfa.com.au
