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