Making profitable management decisions after the dry Part 3: Grains industry

This is part three of the webinar series – Making profitable management decisions after the dry. This webinar recording aims to provide grain growers a ‘first look’ at some at some of the key management strategies and actions to consider when planning for recovery.

The aim of any post-drought cropping program is to restore cash flow as soon as possible. To respond in a timely manner when the rain does fall and put yourself in the best position to establish and grow a harvestable crop, some pre-planning is critical. There are a number of management decisions that need to be made at the right stage of recovery to ensure you are able to capture rainfall when it falls and maximise profit after drought.

By watching the full recording you will hear from two very experienced presenters Rod Collins (Senior Development Extension Officer, DAF) and James Hagan (Economist, DAF) when they discuss:

• Fallow management:
  • Importance of ground cover, soil surface conditions and fallow weed management on rainfall capture and storage.
  • Fallow efficiency – cereals vs pulses, short vs long fallow. Overview of the northern farming systems project.
  • Cover cropping – is it worthwhile?
• Crop management:
  • How to maximise yield after drought – what are the key agronomic considerations?
• Planning for the next dry:
  • Economics of drought recovery – experience from other droughts.

You can watch the full recording or use the playlist below to jump to the start of a particular section within the presentation.

Making profitable management decisions after the dry Part 3: Grains industry webinar recording

Playlist

1. Key fallow and crop management considerations for grain growers during drought recovery
2. Key considerations
3. Fallow management
4. Fallow management – stubble is king!
5. Low cover means slow soil moisture storage and increased runoff and erosion
6. Ground cover = infiltration
7. How much cover do I need?
8. Soils differ…
9. What about weeds?
10. Assessing stored soil moisture
11. Stubble/cover (30% +)
12. GRDC farming systems trial results (fallow management)
13. Soil water trial data
14. Cover crop fallow efficiency
15. What are the economics?
16. Cover crop vs existing stubble
17. Australian CliMate app
18. Take home messages (1)
19. Maximising crop yield
20. Crop selection
21. Before you plant…
22. Past drought experience
23. Business financials (2001-2008)
24. 6 years of farm production data collected
25. Economic factors
26. Existing resources
27. Take home messages (2)

Download a copy of the presentation

Crop management and drought recovery (Rod Collins; 2.62 MB, PDF)

Additional resources

← Making profitable management decisions after the dry Part 1: Financial management

← Making profitable management decisions after the dry Part 2: Beef industry

← Recovering from drought

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