So how does a grower make the best of the good and bad years?  How do they maximise their cropping and livestock potential in all situations?  Uncertainty and unreliability describe well the rainfall environment of the marginal cropping country of the upper EP, the Murray lands and northern cropping areas.  Seasons go from boom to bust in one year with growers experiencing a run of good rainfall seasons and then a series of cruel droughts.  Many farmers would know the good and the bad, the times of plenty, and the times to tighten the belt and conserve the precious resources.

Water for most South Australian growers is the limiting factor to maximum crop growth yet it is often not the factor limiting optimum production. 2007 in the Mallee had all the hallmarks of the cruel 1988 drought year on the Upper Eyre Peninsula. A beautiful opening with many acres sown and then it simply petered away.  The aspect that saved many in the Mallee in 2007 was the very good sub soil moisture reserves that carried the crop through the dry Winter and very dry Spring.

Many growers through the Mallee are following a number of simple principles to optimise their water use potential, and some of these are:

• Reduce the number of workings before sowing.  It is well known that there is a loss of precious soil moisture with every working of moist or damp soil.  The more vigorous and aggressive the working, the greater disturbance of topsoil, which results in the greater loss of moisture.  There has been a significant shift to minimal till and no till farming because of water savings growers can make.

• Reduce the number of weeds.  Summer weeds and in-crop weeds are no friend of the farmer as they compete with the crop for water and nutrients.  Weeds strategies under reduced tillage systems are many and varied. They include herbicide sprays, tillage or hay making and combinations of all the above.  Some no-till growers are finding that their weed burdens are reducing because of the type of bar and tyne assemblies they are using.  Greg Bulter of the SA No Till Farmers Association is always exploring new and innovative weed control methods.

•  Reduce the non productive irredeemable areas of the farm and concentrate maximum cropping effort on those soils that give a return on the dollars spent.  Many areas can be recovered but there are some difficult areas, either because of stone, salt, or hostile sub soil constraints. These areas can still make a farm contribution in growing crops for early grazing or salt bush.

• Increase knowledge of soils and sub soils.  Know what’s down there and how it may be affecting your crop.  A  number of growers are EM38 mapping their paddocks, and then matching the resultant map with deep soil tests.  This enables a better targeting of fertiliser and or seeding rates. 
   

Mallee Sustainable Farming Project, a GRDC supported farmer directed project, has been working away in the Murray Mallee regions of NSW Vic and SA for the past ten years.  In that time there has accumulated a wealth of knowledge from research projects directed specifically toward assisting the grower to make practical decisions to maximise farm potential. 

There is a series of fact sheets, which are freely available, covering a range of topics that cover Mallee farming situations with practical advice borne of sound research and farmer experience.  The fact sheets can be found at the Mallee Sustainable Farming web site. There is opportunity for farmers to take out a membership to further the work or for business to become investors in the project.  The Mallee Sustainable Farming Project is having a positive impact in the Mallee across three states.

AUTHOR: Richard Saunders, Farming System Consultant, Rural Solutions SA.
CONTACT: Richard Saunders, Rural Solutions SA, Telephone: 08 8595 9152, Email: Saunders.Richard@saugov.sa.gov.au