Nutrition Review for 2018 and Lessons for 2019

2018 presented the complete range of seasonal conditions across the Australian grain production regions. It is difficult to summarise all the issues as they were so variable - from completely failed crops in parts of New South Wales, to crops cut for hay in Victoria and very good yields in areas like the Victoria and Tasmanian High Rainfall Zone, Lower Eyre Peninsula and parts of southwestern Western Australia.
Even so - there are some issues that arose and the discussion presented through the GRDC Community of Practice on Thursday 13 December picks up:

• From 2018 – dry sowing and fertilizer damage
• At seeding versus top dressed N – who got it right?
• Did we get N right in 2018 crops - and in fact will we ever get N right?
• Crops cut for hay will have more nutrient removed than if left for grain and this needs to be considered
• Nutrient removals for 2018 and nutrient budgets for 2019

Based on these issues, going into the 2019 winter cropping season, the Importance of soil testing is – again - critical to establish the status of paddocks after such a variable season. Without a starting point it is difficult to manage what is not measured.

The summer rains emphasis the importance of weed management between now and sowing to preserve water and nitrogen, so setting up to reap the benefits of these events in the next crop.

The presentation can be downloaded as a pdf file.