NUTRITION guru Rob Norton will tell the Birchip Cropping Group this month why there’s no such thing as a free lunch in farming.
The associate professor from the School of Agriculture and Food at the University of Melbourne will explain his reasoning at BCG’s Trials Review Day at the Birchip Leisure Centre on Friday, February 24.
Dr Norton says with nutrients, particularly phosphorus (P), you have to replace what’s gone out the gate, otherwise soil P reserves run down.
And he cautions this is often the one important part of soil fertility.
His presentation Crop Nutrition Post 2022 will cover three simple strategies growers can use in 2023 after the high nutrient uptake year of 2022.
Dr Norton believes knowing the phosphorus balance after several high uptake years will be important in 2023.
“As we lead into the cropping season, take a good look at your P strategy,” he says.
“With some bumper crops in the past few seasons, it’s likely your P has been ‘mined’, so going into a new year take an estimate of what P has been applied and what P has been removed in the past four or five years.
“Surveys we did eight years ago showed – even with modest yields around that time – 60 per cent of paddocks we looked at were in P deficit over four years.
“At BCG’s event, I will discuss how a P balance, linked to a good soil test, will help define a long-term strategy for growers to adopt.”
Dr Norton says the past three years of La Nina, coupled with the widespread flooding experienced, are likely to have caused another challenge – nitrogen variability.
“Waterlogged areas will be low in nitrogen. Areas not waterlogged are also likely to be low due to high uptake by plants,” he says.
“Growers are likely to see high variability across paddocks, particularly in the dune and swale landscapes of the Mallee.
“At BCG’s Trials Review Day I’ll lay out an easy strategy to help growers determine the extent of nitrogen variability to inform how best to combat it.”
Dr Norton says he will also discuss why “there are no silver bullets when it comes to nutrition” and outline the proven strategies growers can implement on-farm for good crop nutrition.
“Each farmer and business is different, so it’s hard to talk economics, but I will talk principles and strategies so every farmer can apply them to get the results for which they are aiming.”
Register for BCG’s members’ only Trials Review Day at bcg.org.au/events or call (03) 5492 2787.
The National Centre for Farmer Health will also be in attendance to undertake health checks throughout the day.
