RESEARCH & EXTENSION

Increasing Soil Carbon

These projects are supported by the Goulburn Broken CMA and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Project 1

What does Net Zero mean for Irrigation and mixed business farmers?

This discussion focuses on the changes to practise and activities required to achieve net zero.

Webinar

Speakers Dr Cassandra Schefe; Leader of the “Cool Soil Initiative”, an industry program to support reductions in GHG emissions in cropping, and Dr Kate Burke agri-strategist, author and keynote speaker. This program focuses on the impact of net zero to the activities and practises of irrigation and mixed business farmers, and discusses how they can prepare.

Coming soon…

View the PowerPoint presentation

Watch the Webinar below…
Additional resources:

Marcus Oldham AgTalk S2E12 – Soil Carbon – Sorting the wheat from the chaff with Professor Richard Eckard

Agriculture Victoria – 

Project 2

Increasing soil carbon to ameliorate compaction in irrigated soil

This program aims to assess the potential of applying crop residues to an irrigated soil in order to improve soil carbon.

1

Improving Soil Carbon Webinar

Dr Susan Orgill, Leader, Soil R&D South, Soil and Water R&D Unit, NSW DPI, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute
Damian Jones, Trials Manager, Irrigated Cropping Council

This webinar focused on increasing awareness about the local research into building soil carbon, and practical strategies to build soil organic carbon on farm.

View the PowerPoint presentation

Watch the Webinar…

Play Video

On Farm Demonstration

By improving soil carbon, it is anticipated there will be improvements in soil health, namely improved soil structure through the development of stable soil aggregates.
 
The maize crop grown in 2019/19 demonstrated variable vegetative growth in response to inconsistent soil moisture levels due to the development of patches of non-wetting soil. The demonstration site was expanded in an adjacent paddock to include treatments to overcome non-wetting behaviour.
 
Improvements in soil health will be measured via crop performance and soil analysis.
 
 The treatments include:
  • Stubble (10 t/ha) applied to the soil surface
  • Stubble(10 t/ha) and fertiliser (58 kg N/ha + 22 kg P/ha) applied to the soil surface
  • Stubble(10 t/ha) applied and incorporated
  • Stubble (10 t/ha) and fertiliser (58 kg N/ha + 22 kg P/ha) applied and incorporated
  • Manure (10 t/ha) applied to the soil surface
  • Manure (10 t/ha) applied and incorporated
  • Cultivation only
 
Soil Wetter Demonstration
  • Applied September 9th in crop (faba beans)
  • Aquasil at 30 and 60 l/ha
  • Supawet at 30 and 60 l/ha
  • PAM at 5 and 10 kg/ha 
 
Read the results from the demonstration here.
Read Results

This project is supported by the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s ‘From the Ground Up’ program through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Links to further information

Soil organic matter in cropping systems

Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble across various rainfall environments

Soil your Undies

Deep ripping and soil amelioration trials

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