soil water balance

" Goondiwindi GRDC Grains Research Update Day 1 - Tuesday 4 th March Time Topic Speaker (s) 10:00 AM James Clark (Chair Northern Welcome Panel GRDC) 10:10 AM General plenary (Supported by North West Local Land Services) 10:10 AM 10:40 AM.. Overall, both models are acceptable for modelling soil evaporation over a range of soils and seasons provided accurate soil physical properties and starting water states are known... Overall, populations increased five times compared to before planting the summer crops, but remained below 250/kg soil (Figure 4)...

" GRDC Grains Research Update Goondiwindi, March 2014 General plenary day 2.. Overall, both models are acceptable for modelling soil evaporation over a range of soils and seasons provided accurate soil physical properties and starting water states are known... Only some of the mutations provide resistance to both groups of herbicides...

Given the importance of soil evaporation in influencing how much water will be stored during a fallow and its potential to vary with climate, soils and land management practices, it is timely (within the scope of this project) to assess the way in which we are accounting for these losses in our models.. The large difference in the number of simulations run for each model can be attributed to the physical nature of SWIM. SWIM requires a hydraulic gradient in order to move water between layers, so for soils that are at or above DUL this gradient is very low and SWIM can have difficulty finding a solution... Overall, both models are acceptable for modelling soil evaporation over a range of soils and seasons provided accurate soil physical properties and starting water states are known...

Farmers across southern Australia are adopting no-till farming systems that have potential for greater water use efficiency (WUE) and greater risk of drainage... The strong links established between CSIRO, WANTFA and the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) are a very useful outcome for further research in this area... The links established between CSIRO, DAFWA and WANTFA are strong and should be maintained to ensure rigorous research and rapid adoption...

Whilst managing the water balance of crops is one of the most critical issues in Australian dryland agriculture, there has been limited information available to farm managers that allows the productive capacity of soils to be considered when making crop management decisions... Evaluation of project activities showed that whilst growers were interested in soil water management and were prepared to use Yield Prophet as a tool for in-season crop management, they generally relied on their consultants to undertake the pre-season monitoring and input of data... Whilst the project has had a major influence in promoting the value of soil water in management, there is an on-going need for higher level training as well as the development of increased capacity in soil characterisation and monitoring through the exploration and adoption of new technologies...

Related research undertaken by WANTFA examined the economic performance of several conservation farming strategies... As a result of research conducted in this project and related research managed by WANTFA, growers can adopt more sustainable farming strategies based on better knowledge of the impacts on the resource base... The specific aim of this research project was to collaborate with WANTFA staff to quantify the water balance impacts of the inclusion of cover crops and higher levels of residue retention...

" Print the page Irrigation scheduling is the decision of when and how much water to apply to an irrigated crop to maximise net returns... Irrigation and rainfall add water to the root zone... Following heavy rainfall or irrigation, water will drain out of the root zone until the Drained Upper Limit (DUL) is reached (also known as Field Capacity) - this is the amount of water that the soil can hold against gravitational forces...

" Print the page Irrigation scheduling is the decision of when and how much water to apply to an irrigated crop to maximise net returns... Irrigation and rainfall add water to the root zone... Following heavy rainfall or irrigation, water will drain out of the root zone until the Drained Upper Limit (DUL) is reached (also known as Field Capacity) - this is the amount of water that the soil can hold against gravitational forces...

" Print the page Irrigation scheduling is the decision of when and how much water to apply to an irrigated crop to maximise net returns... Irrigation and rainfall add water to the root zone... Following heavy rainfall or irrigation, water will drain out of the root zone until the Drained Upper Limit (DUL) is reached (also known as Field Capacity) - this is the amount of water that the soil can hold against gravitational forces...