MSF Farm Talk Podcast Mallee Sustainable Farming

In our latest episode, we catch up with Adama Market Development Manager, Alistair Crawford. Alistair is at the coal face of leaf disease management working with growers and advisors to provide research data and expert advice on key crop leaf diseases.

Tanja Morgan chats to Alistair about last season, the impact of the wet finish and what to expect going into 2023. 

This podcast has been developed with the support of Local Land Services with funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program.

Useful Resources discussed during this podcast. 

Agriculture Victoria Cereal Disease Guide

Agriculture Victoria Pulse Disease Guide

Adama web site

https://www.adama.com/australia/en

Soprano 500

https://www.adama.com/australia/en/crop-protection/fungicides/soprano-500

Adama Tank Mixing Guide

https://www.adama.com/australia/en/tank-mixing-guide
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The project that brought you Mallee Sandy Soils Masterclass events in collab with the GRDC Sandy Soils project now brings you demonstrations investigating sandy soil constraint ID and paddock scale amelioration strategies. 

In this episode we catch up with Michael Moodie to talk about a new tool he has been working on to get a better understanding of the nature of the sandy soils we are dealing with.

The Topsoil Mapper has been developed as part of the National Landcare Program Soil Extension funding round to demonstrate to growers the importance of understanding soil constraints prior to developing a soil amelioration plan. 

Stay tuned as we roll out online interactive soil pits as part of this project and bring you more on topsoil mapping and demonstrations later in the year. 

This project has been supported by Mallee Sustainable Farming with funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program and the Grains Research Development Corporation. 

View transcript here

View the MSF projects page here
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Ian and Elizabeth McNabb have over thirty years’ experience with different types of forageshrub, established by both direct seeding and planting tube-stock.

They’ve worked out which species survive best and regenerate, and currently have around 800 acres of mostly Old Man Saltbush on heavier, salt-affected land. This stand has helped reduce the spread of saline land on their property. It also provides valuable extra feed, allowing the McNabb’s to lamb their SAMM ewes down three times every two years. Grazing with cattle as well as sheep has prevented shrubs from getting too tall. Importantly, the extensive area of Saltbush meant the McNabbs could keep their stock through most of the drought of 2017-2020, improving the drought resilience of their business.

This project is supported by the Mallee Catchment Management Authority through funding from the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund. 

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During the 1st week of farmFEST, MSF hosted three livestock nutrition workshops across the tri-state Mallee, at Balranald, NSW, Murrayville, VIC and Peake, SA. Joining project Manager Nick Paltridge and Extension Officer Kylie Matthewson were Emily King National Extension Manager for  Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI), and Hamish Dickson, Ruminant Nutritionist from AgriPartner Consulting. 

After the first two workshops, Hamish and Emily caught up with the MSF team at the Lameroo Hotel.

Hamish explains how he has been working in the Mallee over the past two years with this project to test different feeds, so that farmers can be better placed to understand the energy, protein, fire and mineral content of their feeds. How farmers supplement their feed base with grain, hay and straw was also addressed.  

Emily gives us a quick background on AWI critical investment areas like Life Time Ewe Management, a joint venture with Meat and Livestock Australia on supplementation at weaning and what curly questions she has received on tour so far.

For more info on AWI news: https://www.wool.com/about-awi/media-resources/news/

Info on Life Time Ewe Management: Life time Ewe Management Flier - contact  
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As part of FarmFEST '23 and thanks to the SA Drought Hub we tackle the topic of getting set up for VRT on farm.

Joined by PA tech expert Peter Treloar and Research Agronomist specialising in nutrition Sean Mason we get straight to the point with how to start making maps and creating zones on farm, and you don't need all the flash machinery, anyone can do it!

We also tackle questions such as:


how much data do I need and how many zones?
what am I going to measure?
what could go wrong? 
and more

This project will be ongoing in the SA Mallee so stay tuned for more episodes with Peter and Sean in 2023. 

“This project is supported by the SA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.”
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Ben Ranford farms with his family at Cleve on the Eyre Peninsula. The area has an average annual rainfall of 330mm, with 250mm on average falling in the growing season. Their soils include some white non-wetting sands over clay but are mainly sandy loam. They generally work on a cereal and legume rotation, mainly lentils on the flats and vetch or field peas on the sandy rises, with canola also used in more promising seasons.

Ben finds that their sands are low in nitrogen, so legumes are essential in supporting soil carbon and biological activity. He uses a legume dominant mixed species green manure over about 10% of the farm each year.

Managing subsoil constraints

Throughout 2017 to 2020 the area suffered from challenging dry periods and damaging winds during critical growing season windows. The Ranford's have no livestock in their system, although they have still suffered some erosion damage on their sandy rises. To overcome these issues and protect their white sands, Ben has been deep ripping and delving while growing and returning crop residues to the soil, in addition to the use of other soil health improvement strategies.

To read more about Ben Ranford's story click here

For other GRDC soil preservation case studies click here
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