Demonstrating soil zone mapping for variable rate nutrition management

This project will build on the first year of work conducted with 3 farmers groups in the SA Mallee region. In the first year replicated small plot trials were established, with one in each region.

This project aims to build on the information presented and the grower activities at the workshop where all participants select a paddock on their own property and start to use public satellite and NDVI data to establish their own soil zones to begin the journey of implementing VRT.

Each group (Murray Plains, Waikerie and Pinnaroo) will select 2 focus grower paddocks with a minimum of 6 focus growers The growers must be willing to sow paddock scale fertiliser strips across soil types and must have a yield monitor in their paddock. Consultants Sean Mason and Peter Treloar will support the growers in setting up their paddocks and machinery, as well as provide the data analysis.

This activity will demonstrate how farmers can manage their own investigation of nutrition requirements when setting up VRT soil zones and fertiliser recommendations. The focus growers will have machinery that is compatible to VRT and yield monitoring and this will also be a focus of field day activities to demonstrate the machinery set up and practical considerations of capturing, storing and using data