are you ready for the spring field day? · different variables for one field at the same time. the...

The Liebe Group would like to acknowledge and thank the

Department of Agriculture and Food WA, the Australian Government

Department of Agriculture, the Grains Research and Development

Corporation and Farm Weekly for their valued support.

Diamond Partners

August 2014 | Volume 17 | Issue 6

Liebe Group Newsletter | August 2014| Working Together in Agriculture

Inside this issue

ARE YOU READY FOR THE SPRING FIELD DAY?

It’s almost field day season with Liebe Group’s Spring Field Day being held on Thursday 11

th September at the Ross, Lynette and Shaun

Fitzsimons property on Dinnie Road, 2km east after Fitzsimons Road. Have you asked yourself any of these questions? Can we deep rip in two bites? What is the effect of lime incorporation on the response of wheat

to P, N and micronutrients? What is the latest Hyola

® RT

® research?

What density of canola should I be targeting in low rainfall environments? Come along to answer these plus many more burning questions! For more information visit the website www.liebegroup.org.au or call the office on 9661 0570.

LIEBE NEWS Mace Agronomy Trial:

Page 8

A Guide to Succession:

Pag 10

Late Herbicide

Applications: 2

LIEBE EVENTS Spring Field Day: 11th

September

Ladies Spring Tour: 11th

September

CTF Grower Tour: 24th &

25th September

Myers Briggs Workshop

GENERAL MEETING DATES 1st September

13th October

8th December

All members are welcome at meetings

LIEBE GROUP NEWSLETTER

EO REPORT CLARE JOHNSTON, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LIEBE GROUP

Welcome to the August edition of the Liebe Group newsletter. The last month has seen more great learning opportunities for both staff and members with SEPWA running a precision agriculture DIY course in Dalwallinu, our Post Seeding Field Walk and Beer and Burger Night and just recently an Advanced Spray Management workshop. Liebe staff have also attended the annual Grower Group Alliance Forum in Perth. This is a great opportunity to get to know other groups throughout the state and create great partnerships. Grower groups throughout the state have a great range of knowledge and expertise within their staff and members. Sharing the abundant amount of work that has been conducted over the last year and future plans. A focus for the forum was the sharing of stories between growers and using this as a method to make the difficult decisions. By sharing your stories and listening to others great information can be gained and confidence in decision making can be reinforced. The Spring Field Day is just around the corner, being held on Thursday 11th September at the Fitzsimons property east of Buntine. It is a great site this year with many interesting trials to view and an informative line up of presenters. Elly, along with the support from other staff members is working together on getting the agendas together for the field days so if you have any suggestions or ideas, please don’t hesitate to give the office a call. These events are completely membership driven, so all feedback on the events is welcome. There is again a drive from the Liebe Groups Women’s Committee to get more involvement from women in the Spring Field Day. Feedback from the women’s committee and R&D committee has been used to develop an agenda that will encourage inclusiveness of all people involved in agriculture. For the last two years we ran a successful Ladies Spring Tour in conjunction with the field day, this proved successful and we will be looking to engage more women this year with a range of interesting topics. That’s about all for this month, I encourage all of our members to put this years Spring Field Day on the 11th of September in your diary, it looks to be another great day.

| Liebe Group Newsletter | August 2014 | Working Together in Agriculture

Syngenta Bayer CropScience Pacer Legal Jolly & Sons Agrimaster

Pacific Seeds Australian Grain Technologies AWB Scott’s Watheroo Dolomite

Summit Fertilizers Wesfarmers Federation Insurance

GOLD PARTNERS

SILVER PARTNERS

LONG TERM RESEARCH SITE SUPPORTERS

SCHOLZ RURAL

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Liebe Group Newsletter | August 2014 | Working Together in Agriculture |

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Liebe Group Newsletter | August 2014 | Working Together in Agriculture | Page 4

Thursday 11th September 2014 9.00 am Registration - 5.10 pm Close

Cost Liebe members – Free

Non-members & industry – $50 Students – $20

Includes field day booklet, tea & coffee, morning & afternoon tea, lunch & BBQ dinner along with a wealth of

knowledge & networking. Bar open at 5.10pm

Trials & Demonstrations at the Main Trial Site have been conducted by: Elders, CSBP, the Liebe Group, CSIRO, Pacific Seeds, Pulse Australia, Landmark, Department of Agriculture &

Food, WA, Kalyx Agriculture and Australian Glyphosate Resistance Working Group.

For any queries call 08 9661 0570 or email [email protected]

Wheat, barley, canola, oat & chickpea varieties

Hyola RT research Density response of canola in low rainfall

environments Effect of lime incorporation on the response of wheat to P, N, & micronutrient fertilisers

Herbicides for fallows & fencelines Can we deep rip in two bites? Agronomy of new wheat & barley varieties

in response to N And more!

Field Trials & Demonstrations

SpringSpring

Fitzsimons Property Dinnie Road, 2kms east after Fitzsimons Road

Venue

Field DayField Day

Marquee Presentations

Land use effects on soil microbial health - Emma Pearse & Lyn Abbott, UWA

Australian Grains - Infrastructure Growing Pains - Graydon Chong, Rabobank

Andrew Fletcher, CSIRO More to follow!!

Ladies Spring Tour

A great opportunity for women to network and

experience the trials and presentations

Run between 10.00am - 2.00pm

Increasing agronomic knowledge to build your

business

Meet Lilly at site entrance at 9.50am

AFTER EVENT...BBQ & Bar

DIAMOND SPONSORS

EVENT SPONSOR


POST SEEDING FIELD WALK DEBRIEF

ELLY WAINWRIGHT, R&D COORDINATOR, LIEBE GROUP

On Thursday 25th of July a mix of around 50 farmers and researchers made their way to the Fitzsimons’ property which is the location of the Liebe Group’s 2014 Main Trial Site. The purpose of the afternoon was to give everyone an early look at the trials and provide inspiration for the Spring Field Day being held on the 11th of September this year. Some of this year’s trials covered the topics of cultivation, lime incorporation and wheat and canola varieties. All the trials looked great due to the great start to the season. It was also an ideal day to get out in the paddocks, sunny and not too cold! CSBP, DAFWA, Landmark, Elders and Pacific Seeds all had trials that were presented on the day. Angus McAlpine kicked off the walk with a presentation on CSBP’s trial on phosphorous uptake. DAFWA’s trials tackled deep ripping, reseeding canola, lime incorporation, sowing depth, response of wheat varieties to phosphorus, nitrogen and micronutrients and density response of canola in low rainfall zones. Landmark’s Jess Smith presented on sowing rate of wheat in low rainfall zones and Joe Delaney from Elders presented on cultivation effects on yield. Steve Lamb presented on the latest in Hyola® RT® canola research coming out of Pacific Seeds. After viewing the trials everyone headed up to the Fitzsimons shed for a presentation by Dr Fran Hoyle on the Soil Biology Trial that has been running for eleven years funded and delivered by DAFWA, UWA and the Liebe Group. Dr Hoyle estimates approximately 20% of the added carbon (originating from organic matter inputs) has currently been retained on this sandy soil. Cultivation techniques, stubble and burned systems did not greatly increase SOC. Added organic matter also increased soil cation exchange capacity by 50% (from 4 up to 6 meq/100g soil), demonstrated greater water holding capacity in the surface 10cm layer and had significantly more potassium available. “These differences combined with changes in biological indices, are starting to demonstrate the importance of soil organic matter in crop production systems and provide a valuable asset to generate the evidence base for placing a value against organic matter” said Dr Hoyle. In years eight where a crop was harvested the average yield benefit from adding 80 t/ha organic matter (20 t/ha every three years) over the control was approximately 14%. Yield analysis also showed that while a yield benefit was observed in early years immediately following instigation of the trial for tilled and burnt treatment (6-8% yield gain) this rapidly disappeared. While application of this amount of organic matter is currently not feasible, it demonstrates the long term value of changes in soil organic matter which might be achieved through targeting improved practices over the long term. After the presentation from Dr Hoyle the R&D Committee meeting commenced with a good mix of young and young at heart members. Ideas were discussed for the upcoming Spring Field Day that will be held on the Fitzsimons Property, east Buntine on the 11th of September 2014. It promises to be a fun and informative day with plenty to see and listen too. If you would like more information please contact Elly Wainwright at the office on (08) 9661 0570.

Image: Liebe members at the Post Seeding Field Walk.


PRECISION AGRICULTURE WORKSHOP DEBRIEF ELLY WAINWRIGHT, R&D COORDINATOR, LIEBE GROUP On Thursday 31st of July a small but keen group gathered at the Dalwallinu Discovery Centre to attend a PA workshop run by Nigel Metz, Alice Butler (both from SEPWA) and Julien Coles (Precision Technology Solutions). The aim of the day was to help farmers get the most out of what precision agriculture has to offer without making them want to tear their hair out. The group started off by getting acquainted with Google Earth and Dropbox. Nigel, Alice and Julien showed us how to mark out points, lines and polygons (filled in spaces like paddocks) on Google Earth then transfer this information to Dropbox where it could be accessed by any other device that shared that Dropbox. This is great to have out in the paddock with you so you can ground truth, mark rocks to be picked up later or for somebody else to pick up, give workman instructions and much more. We then moved onto the Spatial Management System (SMS) from Ag Leader Technology Yield data was loaded up we were shown how to clean the data and how to add data points to maps and work out variable rates for fertilisers. We were also shown how to add map layers with different properties. This allows the user to see several different variables for one field at the same time. The last part of the day was devoted to apps, Profarmer Grainmarketing, CliMate and iPaddock were of particular interest. The workshop was a good opportunity for those with an interest in PA to learn more about it and for those more experienced to fine tune their skills. The Liebe Group would like to thank all those who came and Nigel, Alice and Julien for running the workshop. If you would like any further information about the day please contact Elly Wainwright at the Liebe office on (08) 9661 0570.

ADVANCED SPRAY WORKSHOP DEBRIEF ELLY WAINWRIGHT, R&D COORDINATOR, LIEBE GROUP GRDC sponsored a spray workshop presented by Bill Gordon and Andrew Storry on Tuesday 19th at the Dalwallinu Recreation Centre. Nineteen farmers attended and were happy to sit in for the morning as showers passed outside. Some of the questions farmers hoped to get answers to were; what type of nozzles to use? What volumes can be used? How to combat air inductions due to drift? And; How does the pH and water quality effect the chemical being sprayed? Bill and Andrew were happy to answer these questions as the morning progressed. The group then went outside to look at a mini sprayer and the effect of different pressures on droplet sizes through different nozzles. Bill stressed that when considering a nozzle size it is important to think of the full range of droplet sizes at different speeds and pressures before you commit to buying a new set. He also explained to the group how different sized droplets behave differently with big droplets being prone to bounce off the target and very fine droplets not being effected by gravity and because of this having the ability to drift for very long distances especially in circumstances were an inversion layer has developed. Inversion layers develop when the land begins to cool and can cause conditions where droplets can travel for kilometers sometimes causing very serious damage. The morning was finished off by a brief talk by Neville Dunn of Dunn Aviation. He sprayed some canola plants with a dye that could be seen under ultraviolet light and the group was able to see where Neville’s spray was falling on the plants. If you would like any further information of the spray workshop please contact Elly Wainwright at the Liebe Group on (08) 9661 0570.



A CELEBRATION OF LIEBE’S SUCCESS AT THE LIEBE DINNER SARAH THOLSTRUP, ADMINISTRATION MANAGER, LIEBE GROUP On Friday the 15th of August the annual Liebe Group dinner was held at the Old Convent in Dalwallinu. Around 45 Liebe members, partners and staff enjoyed a buffet style meal in the Convent’s lovely main dining room. The purpose of the Liebe dinner is to celebrate the years successes and a chance for staff, members and partners to have a catch up before the busy harvest period. Each year the group aims to have a local person who has achieved something great or excelled in their chosen path. As many of you may know Buntine local and Liebe member Narelle Dodd has always been a keen hockey player, but some of you may not know Narelle’s sporting career started off with volleyball. Narelle was scouted by the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on a volleyball scholarship, where she excelled and got to travel around America and Asia playing the game she loved. Upon Narelle’s return to Australia and the lack of volleyball in Buntine, Narelle was able to switch to hockey where she played, captained and coached Dalwallinu to four consecutive premierships! Narelle started playing Masters Hockey where she has represented Australia and this year came home a world champion. The Liebe Group would like to thank our members, staff and Diamond partners Rabobank, RSM Bird Cameron, CSBP and CBH Group for attending the evening and addressing the guests.

EOI: GROWER CONTROLLED TRAFFIC FARMING TOUR

Liebe Group, in association with DAFWA, are wanting to gather expressions of interest for a free two day (24th and 25th of September) bus tour visiting established CTF farms in Binnu, Nabawa and Walkaway. Topics covered will include:

Please call Sarah Tholstrup at the office on (08) 9661 0570 for more information.


Would you like to visit Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) farms and talk to CTF farmers and technical specialists?

Would you like help to plan how you can move to CTF and gain benefits?

How a CTF farm operates Observed soil benefits under CTF

Short term measures to improve paddock traffic management

Challenges to overcome in impending CTF

Image: Liebe members Shaun Fitzsimons, Buntine, Cam Metcalf, Wongan Hills and Steve Sawyer, Dalwallinu

TEDERA ESTABLISHING WELL ON GUTLESS SAND IN WATHEROO

LILLY MARTIN, RESEARCH AND EXTENSION AGRONOMIST, LIEBE GROUP

Tedera (Bituminaria bituminosa var. albomarginata) is a new drought resistant forage species from the Canary Islands in Spain, which the Liebe Group has been researching along with Daniel Real, DAFWA in the Liebe area since 2006 with promising results. Initially the tedera was trialled at the Long Term Trial Site in Buntine for breeding selection and later for grazing palatability. When it became part of a new project Carbon Farming Futures - Action on the Ground program the new trial was established to see if tedera could establish and provide sheep feed on gutless sand in Watheroo whilst also increasing the soil organic carbon. Tedera has shown excellent ability to produce green fodder in the summer months on pear tree country soil at Buntine but has yet to show that it is viable on poorer soils like gutless sands. However, it is looking like it could be an interesting option as permanent pasture. When the tedera was seeded in 2013 the majority of the seedlings and all of the seeds perished most likely due to a late sowing date (August) for establishment not allowing enough time before a very dry summer. This season it was sown 23rd of May and with the good start to the season it was looking very promising, however, it was very badly windblown on the 18th of June. At sowing there were seeds that had failed to germinate in 2013 but had germinated at the beginning of May with the early rains and given that they had more time to establish they survived the wind event and are thriving. The tedera seeds are competing aggressively against yellow serradella on the site as other than an inital knockdown the site hasn’t been sprayed or received any fertiliser. This is to see how adaptable the Tedera is. Tedera has the ability to survive on 150mm of rainfall and can exist without rainfall for up to 5 months which makes it readily adaptable to the Northern Agriculture Region. This makes it a very promising forage species for sheep farmers in Western Australia as it shows excellent ability to provide palatable green forage over the dry summer months. Other tedera trials have been established in Newdegate, Mount Barker, Dandaragan and Kojonup. The first tedera cultivar was released to commercial partner Seednet/Landmark in 2014 for a small scale seed increase.

This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture as part of its Carbon Farming Futures - Action on the Ground program.


Figure 1: Tedera seedling planted in 2013.

Figure 2: Seed germinated early May 2014.


LIEBE GROUP - MACE AGRONOMY TRIAL NICK JOYCE, MARKETING MANAGER (WA), AGT Mace is now a widely grown wheat variety in Western Australia. In fact it is estimated that from the 2013/14 harvest, there has never before been more wheat produced from a single variety in one year in the history of Australian wheat production. The rapid adoption of Mace is due to it providing a well-rounded package of high yield potential, broad adaptation, eligibility for the AH quality class, solid disease resistance package and lower likelihood of being downgraded due to pre-harvest sprouting damage than many other varieties. This package allows Mace to be a very reliable performer for WA growers, resulting in consistently higher financial returns when compared to other varieties. Early in the year it was suggested to AGT by a well-known agronomist, that growers could be getting more out of Mace’s genetic potential through specifically tailored agronomic practices. The outcome of this discussion was the establishment of a network of field experiments stretching from Esperance to Buntine, with one of these trials being co-located at the Liebe Group main trial site. These field experiments, commencing this year, aim to identify the agronomic practices specific to each region that can assist growers in extracting the maximum potential and therefore greatest possible financial return from this elite variety. The trial will investigate the interactions of sowing rate, nutritional strategy and fungicide application. Further to this, a new longer season AH variety bred by the WA based AGT breeding program will be benchmarked against Mace in this agronomy trial. Through this field experiment, AGT aims to develop a variety ‘package’ for growers on how best to maximise the on farm return from elite varieties such as Mace. AGT is often asked “what’s next after Mace”? Corack is a new variety that has similar parentage to Mace and has proven to be very competitive, at times, superior to Mace in terms of financial returns particularly in WA. Later this year, AGT’s WA based breeding program looks forward to potentially launching a longer season variety, which happens to also have Mace as one of its parents. This variety, currently referred to as WAGT328, aims to provide growers in the Liebe Group region with an earlier sowing tool to complement Mace, with the added features of improved rust resistance, lower screenings and preliminary data indicating a slight improvement in pre-harvest sprouting tolerance. In addition to this AGT is also generating and assessing close to 100,000 new potential varieties each year. This huge number of potential new varieties are routinely assessed within the cropping areas of Australia where Mace is currently grown. Mace itself is a very important parent of a large proportion of these potential new varieties generated each year. Growers in WA can look forward to further gains in productivity and profitability through new AGT varieties. In addition, AGT aims to provide growers with the tools to maximise the genetic potential of these improved varieties, through ongoing agronomic research, such as that outlined above. For further information contact: Jason Reinheimer 0407 832 214 [email protected]

or

Dion Bennet 0400 037 911 [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]


TEST AND TARGET MITES TO SUPPRESS RESISTANCE SVETLANA MICIC, ENTOMOLOGIST, DAFWA ALBANY WA growers are this year being urged to test redlegged earth mites (RLEM) that survive insecticide treatments. This is the only Australian state where this costly pest has developed resistance to synthetic pyrethroids (SPs – Group 3A), including bifenthrin and alpha-cypermethrin, and there are now 30 properties with confirmed RLEM resistance. But researchers say there are likely to be resistant populations spread right across the WA grainbelt. University of Melbourne research indicates SP-resistant RLEM are up to 240,000 times more resistant to some SP insecticides than susceptible RLEM and this resistance is genetic – surviving through several generations. On a positive note, tests have shown that WA’s SP-resistant RLEM populations do not have cross resistance to other insecticide groups, such as organophosphates (OPs – Group 1B), and can be controlled with these products. As part of a GRDC-funded national project, CSIRO and Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) researchers will this year continue to test properties across the State where RLEM are found to survive insecticide treatments. This collaborative research aims to monitor the extent, geographical spread and dynamics of RLEM resistance, finetune recommendations for integrated management strategies and determine more targeted spraying tactics for this pest. Testing for resistant RLEM If RLEM survive registered rates of insecticide treatments, or there is suspicion that mites resistant to chemicals are present on a property, or you just want to know, contact DAFWA’s broadacre entomologists to have mites sampled and tested. For more information contact Svetlana Micic on (08) 9892 8591 or [email protected]

HC-X AND MC-X LICENCES - DO YOU NEED ONE? Are you or your worker towing any sort of agricultural implement, whether it be an air seeder, field bin or boomspray but only have a Western Australian ‘C’ class licence? Did you know that if you had an accident, it would not be insured? Or if your worker happened to be a foreigner and got caught they could be deported? Not exactly ideal at a busy time like harvest! A HC-X or MC-X license allows people with just a Western Australian ‘C’ class license to legally tow an agricultural implement. All you have to do to apply for one of these licenses is: Be 18 years or older At minimum hold a Western Australian ‘C’ class licence Complete a Drivers Licence Application (DL1) form for the relevant class HC-X (condition code 76) or MC-X

(condition code 76) Complete a Towed Implements Statutory Declaration (E1) form Obtain a letter of competency written by a qualified person (someone who holds an MC licence if MC-X is

required) and can verify the applicants ability to drive tractors and tow implements. Please call the Shire of Dalwallinu on (08) 9661 0500 for more information.




A GUIDE TO SUCCESSION #20 GRAINS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Over the course of 2012 and 2013 the Liebe Group has been including snippets of information from the publication “A Guide to Succession - sustaining families and farms” for the Liebe growers. This continues with the twentieth instalment following on from the July 2014 newsletter. The book can be obtained from the Liebe office, and the group invites you to request a free copy - it is worth the read. The book is compiled and written by Judy Wilkinson for Rural Solutions SA and Lyn Skyes of Dubbo and has been published by the Grains Re-search & Development Corporation. CASE STUDY thirteen – Decisions to leave farming The authors have had the privileged opportunity to share time with many families as they face the challenge of succession planning. No one of those families are reflected here. Elements of many have found their way to these pages. For the generosity of all those families spanning over twenty years - thank you. We hope this publication will help many others. Each case study consist of: An explanation of why the family have come together. A genogram which is a diagrammatic representation of the

family. A list of assets and liabilities to give a picture of the business and enterprises. Agreements made by the family. Comments from each family member depicting their feelings or thoughts at the end of the meeting.

This farming family came together as a result of a facilitator being in their area - they were keen to find out what the children’s thoughts were regarding succession and inheritance. The eldest two children had both finished their first block of tertiary study. The youngest child is in her final years of high school.


A GUIDE TO SUCCESSION #20 CONT...

Agreements No one was happy with the state of the parents will. Three quarters of the assets were to go to the son and one quarter remaining to be divided between the two daughters. The parents did not intend to discriminate but were unsure what else to do. It was agreed that: All children would receive the same educational opportunities. If anything happened to the parents in the next five

years, the older children would support the younger sister until she had finished university.

All the children thus far has equal input into the business relevant to their current age. The family wanted to end up with a viable business

and a viable family. New wills to be drawn up for the parents. Should the parents die in the next five years, the

assets are to be distributed equally (none of the children plan to return to the business in the next five

years). Clarify land titles. The family to meet annually. The family to meet with the facilitator again in five

years time.


Assets & liabilities

Land Hectares Value

Block 1 1000 $1,300,000

Block 2 700 $1,700,000

Operational

Sheep $400,000

Plant $500,000

Off-farm

Town House $400,000

Office Blocks $600,000

Total assets $4,900,000

Liabilities

Bank $700,000

House Loan $300,000

Total liabilities $1,000,000

Nett $3,900,000

Family member Comment

Daughter 1 Surprised about the will, pleased we had a chance to talk about it

while Mum and Dad are alive and make changes.

Son 1 Surprised by the level of emotion including my own. Glad we did not

leave it ten years.

Daughter 2 Glad we are not selling the farm.

Mother Relieved that we had the discussion about the will even though the

answers are not easy.

Father Proud of the children and the way they handled themselves today.


THINK GLOBAL AUSTRALIAN HERBICIDE RESISTANCE INITIATIVE

“Herbicides are as important to global food production as antibiotics are to human health” - Professor Stephen Powles. Humanity has faced some major challenges in the past and has always met these challenges through innovation. The extremely infectious and deadly smallpox virus plagued people for centuries and yet by 1980 we had eradicated it on a global scale. The innovation? A newly perfected vaccine, and a huge, worldwide collaborative effort. But while smallpox is gone, herbicide resistance lives on and as AHRI Director Stephen Powles believes, it is posing a huge threat to global food security. Our population is exploding and with grains the only feasible way to feed the world, we can’t afford a drop in grain production. It will take new thinking to meet the challenge which is why Steve Powles and the AHRI team convened the Global Herbicide Resistance Challenge conference in Western Australia last year. For more information please visit the AHRI website: http://www.ahri.uwa.edu.au/

LATE HERBICIDE APPLICATIONS JESSICA SMITH, AGRONOMIST, LANDMARK DALWALLINU As cereals are coming into flag leaf emergence and even in ear, there is a reminder to be mindful of phenoxy timings for late radish clean ups. LVE MCPA is only registered up to growth stage Z31 (fully tillered/ first node), LV Ester 680 is your next option up until Z33 (jointing) and the third and last option is Ester 800 which is registered until Z45 (booting). If crop is past booting and radish/grasses are still a problem the only option registered in wheat is a salvage option at hard dough. PowerMax is currently the only Glyphosate registered for use in wheat at hard dough at 900mL - 1.8L and is a harvest aid only. Be mindful that there is a 7 day withholding period before harvest with the use of PowerMax and grain should not be held for next years seed. Another reminder for Velocity use on late weeds is that it is only registered for use up until first node Z31. Late radish that is bigger than 4 leaf should not be sprayed with Velocity alone. A Velocity/ MCPA LVE mix is recom-mended with at least 800mL – 1L of Velocity and 350-500mL of MCPA LVE. For more information please call Jess Smith on 0448 996 770.


Disclaimer: Any recommendations, suggestions or options in this publication do not necessarily

represent the policy or views of the Liebe Group. No person should act on the basis of the contents of

this publication without first obtaining specific independent professional advice.

The Liebe Group will not be liable for any loss, damage, cost or expense incurred or arising by reason

of any person using or relying on the information in this publication.

Reproduction of articles is generally permitted, however, please seek approval from the Liebe Group

before doing so.


A LOOK AT WORLD MARKETS MATTHEW STENHOUSE, BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGER AVON, CBH GROUP The latest USDA report was recently released and confirmed what we had been hearing on the market wires - an increase in global grain and oilseed production and an increase to global stocks. There are three key factors that are impacting grain values at the moment: Russian / Ukraine production and political issues European harvest weather and quality concerns US corn – forecasting record crops. In the second week of the month we saw a little rally in wheat, basis in WA has been at record highs however, after this rally and the trade going hard on the following day, we saw basis take a large hit. It seems the trade was looking for liquidity for growers. That was until the end of the week, which saw a decline of 12.25c/bu on CBOT after tensions in the black sea region simmered, however, it will be a ‘watch this space’ situation regarding the unrest in this region. The second issue making news is the weather concern during harvest in Europe, especially Germany and France. The discussion in market news suggests there may be a shortage of good milling wheat, despite the high amount of wheat coming to market. This may be something to continue to keep an eye on. US corn production is also weighing heavily on any case for bullish sentiment for wheat as there is a discrepancy between the USDA estimates and trade estimates. At the moment the US is getting good rains across corn growing areas, and the EU rains throughout their harvest has seen a switch from corn feed in favour of wheat. With good corn growing conditions across the US the expectation are final yields will come in well above the current USDA estimates. The USDA report confirmed large barley production across Europe and the Black Sea region increasing production evaluations. Global production estimates have now increased 4mmt and global consumption by 139mmt. Overall, with the increase of production in these areas and what appears to be an oversupply of feed quality grains and the absence of Canada and Argentina production, will mean Australian barley will still be critical for the Chinese malt and FAQ barley demand. The canola market in Canada is a follower of the bean market in Chicago. With a massive bean crop around the corner and the conditions of the crop looking favourable, it will continue to weigh on the oilseed market. EU is also looking promising however, weather issues at harvest could create some challenges. There are still some questions over Canadian canola production with the USDA moving production figures down from 15.7Mt to 15.25Mt, yet private estimates have production limited between 14.3Mt and 14.6Mt. China could be a very important market for Australian canola if prices are competitive against offers coming out of Canada. Keeping up-to-date with market news is important, but so is also managing the final price you receive for your commodity. New to CBH this year is a product called Dynamic Cash that will help manage price volatility during harvest. The objective of Dynamic Cash will be to achieve an approximate average of harvest values by selling into the track market (rather than the grower market). Sales will be spread evenly over the marketing period with a targeted quota of sales each week. Growers can participate in a short 8 week or an 13 week sales program and receive cash flow during this period. It will be an easy and effective way to capture values over harvest. More details of the Dynamic Cash product will be released shortly, however, if you have any queries please feel free to contact me, Matthew Stenhouse on 9690 2987, the Grower Service Centre on 1800 199 083 or call into the CBH tent at Dowerin or Mingenew field days for further information.


EXPLORING GXE INTERACTION TO ACHIEVE HIGH AND STABLE YIELD OF CANOLA IN THE LOW AND HIGH RAINFALL AREAS HEPING ZHANG, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, CSIRO

Key message RR canola produces the highest yield at both the low (Cunderdin) and high (Kojonup) rainfall areas. Early-flowering canola produces similar yield to mid flowering ones in the low rainfall area. However, mid

flowering canola yield better than early flowering ones in the high rainfall area. The yield performance of open-pollinated and hybrid canola is similar in the low rainfall area while hybrid

canola outperforms open-pollinated canola in the high rainfall area. Aim To investigate and explore the GxE interaction in canola to achieve high and stable yield across the rainfall zones. Background The development of a profitable break crop in a low rainfall cereal growing areas is essential for sustainable and profitable systems. Canola is the most profitable break crop in the traditional wheatbelt because of its high value and herbicide tolerance (HT) and continues to expand into the low rainfall areas as more adapted varieties become available. The genotype and environment interaction plays a significant role in determining its yield performance and therefore profitability. Growers can explore the genotype by environment interaction in different rainfall zones by selecting a right cultivar with corresponding agronomic management such as N input. Trial details In 2013, we set up two field experiments at the low (Cunderdin) and high (Kojonup) rainfall area to investigate the genotype by environment interaction. The experiment consisted of 21 hybrid and open-pollinated (OP) triazine tolerant (TT), imidazoline tolerant (IT or Clearfield), and Roundup-Ready (RR) canola from the major Australia canola breeding companies and two N rate (0, 100 kg N/ha at Cunderdin and 150 kg N/ha at Kojonup) was im-posed to all cultivars. Seeding rate was set to achieve 40 plant m-2 based on the seed weight measured prior to seeding and the crop was sown at a row space of 22cm. The crop was sown on 8 May 2013 at Cunderdin and on 9 May 2013 at Kojonup. The N (100 kg/ha at Cunderdin, and 150 kg/ha at Kojonup) applications were split at 20% at seeding, 40% at six weeks after seeding, and 40% at flowering. Results Overall, the mid-flowering varieties yielded significantly higher than the early flowering at both locations. The longer season mid flowering varieties yielded 13% more than the early flowering ones in Kojonup (Figure 1). However, although statistically significant at Cunderdin, the advantage of mid-flowering was minor. Considering the fact of the above the long term averages spring rainfall and a relatively mild seed filling period in 2013, this minor advantage could disappear or even become negative if the seasonal rainfall is at and below the average. Previous study showed that yield decreased with delay of flowering at Kojonup in a drought year (2010) when the growing season rainfall was 265mm. We are conducting these trials over years, and will continue to pay close attention to the relationship between phenology and seasonal rainfall in future. RR canola produced the highest yield among the herbicide tolerance groups at both locations while Clearfield and TT canola showed similar yields (Table 1). Comparing the pollination groups of OP vs hybrid system, the hybrid canola produced 24% higher yield than the OP ones in Kojonup and 11% higher yield at Cunderdin (Figure 1). This indicates that the potential of hybrid canola in the high rainfall area may be greater than in the low rainfall area, but this must be balanced against the performance of individual cultivars and the cost of seed for profitability. It is less likely to be profitable for hybrid canola in the low rainfall area because the yield difference between hybrid and open-pollinated canola was not large enough to compensate for the cost of seed.


EXPLORING GXE INTERACTION TO ACHIEVE HIGH AND STABLE YIELD OF CANOLA IN THE LOW AND HIGH RAINFALL AREAS CONT... There was contrasting responses of canola to N between Kojonup and Cunderdin. At the Cunderdin site with the high initial soil mineral N (216 kg N/ha) at sowing, all 3 types of canola had no response to the 100 kg N/ha application. In contrast, all 3 types of canola responded significantly to N application of 150 kg N/ha at the low N (86 N kg/ha) Kojonup site, with a yield increase of 63-83% compared with the nil N treatment (Table 1).

Figure 1: The effect of flowering time and pollination type on yield of canola (t/ha) at the low (Cunderdin) and high (Kojonup) rainfall area in 2013. Table 1: Yield of Clearfield, Roundup Ready (RR) and triazine tolerant (TT) canola and their response to N application at low (Cunderdin) and high (Kojonup) rainfall area in 2013.

Comments While it is essential to confirm these results over a range of locations and seasonal rainfalls, our preliminary data has highlighting some important principles. OP and hybrid TT, IT, RR canola provide growers with a range of choices to select for different rainfall conditions and growing season lengths. TT and RR canola with early flowering is probably more suitable for the low rainfall areas because of its low cost in TT canola and the high yield potential of hybrid RR canola. In the high rainfall area, the longer-season mid flowering canola has high yield potential and hybrid Clearfield and hybrid RR canola can produce higher yield than OP canola. There was no significant yield advantage of Clearfield canola compare to TT canola and therefore it is unlikely to be adopted in lower rainfall area as a result of high costs associated with seed and weed management. The effect of crop growth pattern and yield components on yield formation is currently under study. With these additional data, we expect to further dissect yield formation and identify the traits associated yield variation between the HT groups and between the varieties within the same HT group.

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the technical support of Chris Herrmann, Emma Berge and Adam Brown and DAFWA Research Support Units at Northam and Katanning. This research is supported by GRDC and CSIRO. Part of this paper was extracted from my 2014 Agribusiness Crop Updates paper which was reviewed by Mark Seymour.

Canola group Cunderdin Kojonup N (kg/ha) Cunderdin Kojonup

Clearfield 1.65 2.55 0 1.72 1.90

RR 2.00 2.84 100/150 1.67 3.38

TT 1.50 2.47

lsd (0.05) 0.27 0.43 lsd (0.05) 0.03 0.13


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