A focus on improving soil health has led to significant changes over the past two years for Shannon Byron and his family, farming at Kellalac, south of Warracknabeal in Victoria's Wimmera.
Mr Byron farms with his wife Emma and parents Kim and Lynette Byron on 'Kelvin Downs' growing wheat, canola, lentils, chickpeas, barley, vetch and the occasional bean, lupin or pea crop, as well as running some sheep and cattle.
Over the past couple of years, the family has changed the way they farm to address long-term soil degradation and make the operation more manageable, including taking a more sustainable approach to the cropping rotation.
The Byrons have reduced the area under crop from 3,000 hectares down to 2,300 hectares, invested in new machinery and switched to liquid fertilisers as part of a dedicated push to improve soil health.
Mr Byron said the family are focusing more than ever on timely and effective crop management, in particular the nutrition program.
The Byrons have gone from a system of broadcasting urea in front of the seeder and applying seed and starter fertiliser together, to a much more carefully planned and placed nutrition program.
Much of that improvement is thanks to their 2020 purchase of a new Liquid Systems series pump and control module, set up with a 5,400 litre trail-behind liquid tank to put out liquid fertiliser.
Mr Byron said it had been a massive help in terms of getting the nutrients where the plant could get at them.
"Having the liquid kit enabled us to better place our inputs down the tube, which is helping improve crop growth from the start, as well as improving our soil health," he said.
Mr Byron said the family apply 30 to 40 litres a hectare of liquid nitrogen, using Incitec Pivot's Easy N product, which along with N contains humates, fulvates, trace elements and carbon.
The 42.5pc nitrogen fertiliser is applied in-furrow at sowing and can be boosted with inoculants critical to legume plant growth in pulse crops.
Mr Byron said operationally the switch to liquid nitrogen had paid dividends.
"One of the best parts of Easy N is that nearly everything's compatible with it," he said.
"It's also very efficient, with the nitrogen readily available and right next to the crop."
The Byrons have also converted to a new 18 metre tyned seeder with adjustable depth control, meaning seed can be placed more accurately.
The liquid nitrogen is placed on top of 50 kg/ha of MAP (phosphorus fertiliser) in the fertiliser row which sits 2.5 cm to the side and below the seed line.
"This puts the nutrients right in the root zone where the plant needs them and gives us some breathing space to assess crop emergence before we consider applying more nitrogen after Z14," Mr Byron said.
A key advantage of the new sowing system has been improved efficiency.
"When we changed to 18 metres with our airseeder unit, we came back to one tractor, one airseeder bar and bin and one liquid cart instead of running two units with two operators," he said.
"This frees up labour for other jobs, halves the chance of mechanical breakdowns and means all the crops are sown to the right depth with the right nutrition."
Post-sowing there is now a greater focus on tailoring nutrient programs with plant needs.
The Byrons are now doing more soil and plant tissue testing than ever before, with the results meaning they are able to use less nitrogen, a critical saving with rising N prices globally.
They have gone from applying up to 350 kg/ha of urea over a season to more like 120 L/ha of liquid N.
"What would happen in the past is we would put out 100 kg/ha of urea ahead of a rain forecast and only end up getting one or two millimetres, which is not enough to do anything, so we'd lose it," Mr Byron said.
"When it did rain, the crop would green up like anything, but it was all above ground - it didn't have the root system to support it - so that if it was a dry finish, we'd be cutting hay."
With a 380 mm growing season rainfall, Mr Byron said taking a more moderate approach to nitrogen rates, with a more efficient nitrogen product is working well for them so far.
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