Crop rotation considerations for 2019
Producers are being urged to consider using an online tool which allows them to devise their 2019 crop sequence for each paddock.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s (DPIRD) WA crop sequence calculator may prove beneficial in situations where canola hasn’t been sown due to dry conditions in 2018 and crop rotations need to be restructured in 2019.
The tool can be used to compare gross margins for different crop sequence options based on results from dynamic crop sequence trials at Katanning and Wongan Hills.
The crop sequence calculator allows producers to devise their 2019 crop sequence for each paddock, treating 2018 as a fallow year where the paddock was not cropped.
It was developed from experimental data at two sites over four years – 2008 to 2011 for Katanning and Wongan Hills and is set up to demonstrate yield performance and return rates yearly or cumulative of three and four years of rotation.
The experimental returns are based on the trial data but the ‘your returns’ section gives producers flexibility to manually change the values for yield, cost and price and obtain the returns accordingly.
To have confidence in the output producers can also use the historical data charts to compare crop sequences to wheat after wheat by simply changing the crop selected in year two.
For more information contact Raj Malik, Research Office, Katanning, on +61 (0)8 9821 3 247.