| |
|
Research Program: Farming Systems Program leader: Professor Ted Wolfe  Main thrust: The Farming Systems program deals with the
general areas of crop and pasture agronomy, both in
dryland and irrigated systems. It focuses on the
maximisation of productivity while maintaining or enhancing
the sustainability of the system. Specific areas
of research include precision farming, overcoming
soil acidity through crop management and liming,
pasture management, increasing the diversity of
crop-pasture rotations, and the spatial dynamics of crops
and pastures.
Aims:
• increase the rotation options open to farmers,
to enhance system stability and to provide opportunities for integrated approaches to
weeds, pests and diseases;
• provide a focus for farming systems research
and education;
• minimise the negative environmental impacts
of farming;
• enhance profitability through the
appropriate allocation of inputs;
• maintain or enhance the agricultural resource base.
For some of the sustainability issues that have constrained farming, like soil degradation,
research has provided workable solutions. Australian
farmers are learning how to deal with some of the
soil constraints by liming to correct soil acidity,
using deep-rooted plants to counter ring water-tables,
and reducing cultivation to overcome soil compaction.
For the future, a greater emphasis is needed on generating diversity in pasture-crop rotations,
because of the biological risks (disease epidemics,
herbicide resistant weeds) that are associated with simple,
two-crop rotations. In every part of Australia,
paddock rotations will need to embrace a minimum of
two cereal crops, an oilseed crop and a pulse crop in
each cycle of the rotation. Ideally, a diverse range of profitable crops should be available to farmers, and this is one of the themes within the program. One PhD student, Kamrun Nahar, is working with Professor Ted Wolfe and Glenn Roberts, NSW Agriculture's oat breeder at Temora, in a bid to design more efficient strategies to produce oat varieties that combine grazing tolerance with high yields of quality grain. An Honours student Nick Wachsmann, is checking out how the early growth of linseed/linola, a slow starter like lupins, might be enhanced. Linseed is an oilseed alternative to the Brassica species (canola, Indian mustard) that is grown widely in Canadian rotations but has not yet found favour in Australia due to slow early development and lodging. Funds are also available for a GRDC studentship on the early vigour of lupins (to be supervised by Dr David Luckett at WWAI and Ted Wolfe) but a student with a good background in botany, plant physiology or genetics has yet to be found. Facilities: There are a range of facilities (glasshouses, growth-houses, growth rooms, laboratories, GIS and GPS equipment and software, moisture sensing and other plant physiology equipment, dehydrators and plant/soil grinders) within the Farrer Centre and the School of Agriculture for the support of research in the Farming Systems program. Farm paddocks and field equipment are available, and access to experimental sites and facilities can be negotiated with NSW Agriculture, CSIRO and farmer collaborators. A recent addition was the completion of an Agronomy Laboratory building for postgraduate students. Staff involved: CSU
Jonathon Medway, Richard Early,
Ted Wolfe, Jim Pratley Other
Students |