Update from our Sustainable Agriculture Project Officer, Josh Telfer

2022 will go down in the history books as a wet year. The maps on the left show a comparison between this year, (January-September) with 2019, which helps us appreciate both how wet the ‘wet areas’ have got this year, but also how excessive rainfall has been distributed across the region. For example, the Cleve Hills are finally able to find the rainfall that went missing through the recent droughts.

Ground cover levels across the region are exceptional at the moment, with only very minor bare soil in satellite imagery. While they are from exactly the same time of year, the bare soil classification of the two satellite images (on the left) in 2019 and 2022 show high levels of coverage on what are normally problematic soils.

While there are definitely some negative outcomes of all this rainfall with increased reports of waterlogged crops, new Mallee seeps appearing, growing water table salinity, along with numerous crop diseases, it is a phenomenal year for soil cover, and also hopefully, crop production.

Local plant growth figures also show an above average trend for this year.

Update from our Sustainable Agriculture Project Officer, Josh Telfer

We’ve seen waterlogging across the wetter parts of EP this winter and spring. There are differences in how different crops handle excess water, and this also impacts on how we might manage the problem.

While plants release oxygen through their leaves in photosynthesis, their roots actually need to breath oxygen to grow and function, and when the soil profile becomes saturated with water, roots can’t function well. There are strategies different plants use to get around this situation, some plants like rice, wheat, and faba beans can have air-conducting spaces known as ‘aerenchyma’ that allow oxygen to move within the root into a soil which then helps the roots function, even in very saturated conditions.

Back in February 2022, Malcolm McCaskill from Agriculture Victoria gave an excellent talk at the GRDC Updates on this. Read more about this or watch Malcolm give a great comparison between wheat, faba beans and canola in terms of their management for waterlogging.

Faba beans are much more tolerant of waterlogging compared to other legumes like field peas, lentils and lupins. When some of these crops get waterlogged - even if they survive - they often never fully recover and end up not using enough water which can hasten salinisation as the excess water can then flow into shallow water tables, and bring salts to the surface.

If you have a failed part of the paddock due to waterlogging, consider sowing a summer cover crop or pasture, as it gives an opportunity to both use excess water, but also improve soil cover.

For most places on Eyre Peninsula, 2022 has turned out to be pretty wet. Spring/summer sown cover crops have the ability to use up surplus moisture from the winter period following events like waterlogging.

A summer crop can also be useful to improve surface cover after crops like grain legumes - which often leave minimal ground cover. This can then cause multiple issues like leaving land exposed to wind and water erosion, as well as the inability to store early moisture in the topsoil, along with enhancing capillary rise of subsurface water which is a problem with land prone to salinity or Mallee seeps.

While summer crops sometimes need to be managed so as to not dry out the soil too much, this is often more straightforward than managing summer weeds - and afterwards it can leave the soil protected, or the crop can be used as a forage source.

Through our Regenerative Ag Program, we seek to investigate and promote practices that improve the natural capital resilience of soil and farming practices. We’ve had a series of demonstration sites run over the past four years to support the use of summer and multi-species cover crops growing (in winter and the spring/summer period). For more information on growing summer cover crops, take a look at the case studies on our page or contact Josh Telfer on 0460 000 290.

Lentils were a widely discussed crop on many of the days, with discussion around issues such as broadleaf weed control, suitable soil types, disease management and harvest-ability.

With the 2022 season being kind to low rainfall areas of Eyre Peninsula, it was great to see some very impressive crops as far west as Ceduna and Nundroo, right through to Cowell and everywhere in between.

Photo: At the Franklin Harbour Ag Bureau Sticky Beak, Nutrien Ag's Richard Norris presenting on using mixed species to improve soil health at one of our grant demonstration sites. 

Event report from our Sustainable Agriculture Project Officer, Josh Telfer

We held a salinity mitigation workshop with local farmers in September at Ungarra, following landholder enquires and concerns about how best to manage salinity, as well as an identified generation gap in experience in dealing with salinity.

High rainfall in early 2022 followed with above average winter rainfall, has resulted in areas that have been significantly waterlogged, and with surplus water in the landscape, this is turbo charging salinity issues - in a similar manner to what was observed in other recent above average rainfall seasons (2010 and 2016).

Workshop speakers included Brett Masters and Brian Hughes from SARDI; and Mallee seeps expert Chris McDonough from Insight Extension for Agriculture. The presenters were able to cover the spectrum of the sources and types of salinity, land practices that contribute to salinisation, the impact of salt on crops, and the impact of farming systems changes over the past 20 years.

There was visit to a nearby paddock with waterlogging and linked saline discharge area, where the group was able to discuss some of the different types of salinity and possible management issues. These included revegetation, summer crops to reduce immediate soil water and waterlogging, but also how to use strategic lucerne, salt tolerant species such as puccinellia, perennial shrubs and trees; and the strength and weaknesses of these approaches.

There was a presentation and discussion about how to use the Mallee seeps/salinity decision tree from Chris McDonough which has been developed by Mallee Sustainable Farming.

A presentation and Q&A session followed on the use of drainage in managing salinity with material presented from Brian Hughes (SARDI) along with how it related to other salinity management.

The key call to action for participants from Chris McDonough was “Do what you can to try to avoid damp, bare soil over summer”.

Do you have a budding young photographer in your family? A What’s in your backyard? photo competition is now open!

Junior Landcare together with Landcare ambassador Costa Georgiadis, are inviting Aussie children, schools and youth groups to snap photos of the flora and fauna in their backyard – and share with Costa why their photo is special to them.

“Your backyard might be a garden. If you live in an apartment, your garden could be plants on your balcony. You may live near a park or bushland area, or a river or wetland. You may live on the coast close to the sea, or on a farm – these could all be your backyard,” says Costa.

Children can enter as many photos as they like, selecting a theme that best suits their photo - biodiversity, food production, waste management and recycling or First Nations perspectives.

The winning school or youth group stands the chance of winning a camera, book hampers and visit from Costa, with cameras and book hampers also up for grabs for individual State and Territory winners.

To enter or for more info, simply go to www.juniorlandcare.org.au/WIYBY. Competition closes 31 October.

And if you’re looking for other activities to inspire kids, the Junior Landcare Learning Centre’s Just for Fun section is packed with activity sheets developed to help children at home and at school explore Junior Landcare and create their own ideas.