Soils

Western Australia’s agriculture sector needs access to quality soil that can sustain long-term productivity and growth. The department is leading the way in developing management practices to maximise soil productivity and minimise land degradation. The department also provides technical information on managing soil constraints, including acidity, water repellence, subsoil compaction, erosion along with nutrient management. We also support agriculture through soil and land condition monitoring, condition assessment and providing management strategies and tools to improve soil condition.

Articles

  • The aim of carbon farming is to sequester more carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as part of Australia's response to climate change.

  • Soil organic carbon (SOC) is inherently low in Western Australian soils – limited by climate and soil type – with some potential to increase through management.

  • Claying involves adding and incorporating clay-rich subsoil into water repellent topsoil to overcome the repellence.

  • Waterlogging causes significant reductions in plant growth in some years and some environments in the high rainfall (greater than 600 mm annual rainfall) areas of South West Western Australia.

  • Waterlogging is a common problem in the agricultural soils of south-west Western Australia in the wetter months of winter.

  • MySoil is a simple tool to identify soil types. Growers can use soil identification to improve soil management and reduce the impact of soil constraints.

  • If you are deep-ripping, ploughing or spading to remove subsurface compaction or another constraint, it is a good idea to incorporate lime in the same operation.

  • Confident identification of soil compaction to restrict crop or pasture growth uses diagnosis combining visual symptoms of plant, root and soil features.

  • Soil acidification is an inevitable and ongoing consequence of productive agriculture.

  • Liming to recover an acidic soil to an appropriate pH can result in significant production benefits, however a response to liming indicates that previous production has been lost due to an acidic t

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