Crop growth and water use under deep tillage

Authors: Murray Unkovich¹, Michael Moodie²

Research Team: Todd McDonald, Mick Brady, Chris Davies

¹School Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, ²Frontier Farming Systems

Funded By: GRDC

Project Title: Increasing production on sandy soils in low and medium rainfall areas of the Southern Region

Peer Review: Tanja Morgan

Key Words: barley, wheat, deep ripping, water use efficiency

Key Messages

• Heads/m2 and grain yield were increased by deep tillage to 30cm but not 20cm
• Total crop water use was marginally increased by tillage to 30cm but could not account for all of the increase in grain yield
• Crops may have responded to deeper tillage by producing more tillers and increasing yield potential
• Water use efficiency was substantially increased by deep tillage, probably due to reduced bare soil evaporation under the better tillering crops