Testing New Products13WMG16

Bill Bowden and Dave GartnerWest Midlands Group

Crop updates March 7, 2014Badgingarra

Aims

• To independently compare a range of post seeding agricultural products.

• To demonstrate that one trial is not enough to demonstrate the efficacy of any product and/or practice

Background to the trial

• Products to be tested– Growers and overseas trips – Local marketers of products

• Will they work under local conditions and for our farming systems?– Testimonials not good enough– Appropriate controls essential

• Easier to disprove than prove but still site season and management specific– Popper and falsification

Background – cont’d

• Many promoters do not say when and where their product works– Implies that they work any where– In nutrition they often do not specify the soil fertility– Yield potential

• But often the product has to be used in a specific way – Mechanical weed control– Save dollars vs traditional– Work in long term but not in year of application

Specifics of this trial

• All plots were sown by the farmer– Which meant that we could only have post seeding

applications – Standard cultivar, sowing time, seeding rate, weed control.

• Soil Test Results 0 – 10 cm depth: – mineral N 36 mg/kg, P 16 mg/kg, K 72 mg/kg, S 18 mg/kg, – OC 1.57%, conductivity 0.142 ds/M, pH(CaCl2) 5.3,– exchangeable cations (meq/100gm):-

ex Al 0.048?, ex Ca 3.09, ex Mg 0.38, ex K 0.18, ex Na 0.08 • Rotation:

– wheat 2009, canola 2010, wheat 2011, canola 2012, wheat 2013

Trial design

• Two levels of background nutrition– As infertile site as possible– Plus everything plot (Summit spud)

• Large plots for longer term work• Appropriate controls– Nil every thing– Test of mixture components

Low and high fertility blocks

• The two main treatments were sown without and with Summit Spud at 130 kg/ha. The plus fertiliser treatments were drilled with the seed and provided the following nutrients: 10.4 kg N/ha, 16.6 kg P/ha, 14.6 kg K/ha, 10.3 kg S/ha, 2.9 kg Ca/ha, 1.2kg Mg/ha , 180 gm Cu/ha, 170 gm Zn/ha, 200 gm Mn/ha and 10 gm Mo/ha

• The plus nutrient plots were given subsequent additional 100 litres/ha of UAN (42 kg N/ha) on June 17 (3.5 leaf stage)

The sub-treatments/products tested# final treatments1 Ipusagro2 Grazers3 Summit Maxamflo4 CSBP NS515 CaCl26 Calsap with water7 Calsap with UAN8 control (nil)9 12 kg N/ha urea

10 23kg N/ha urea11 46 kg N/ha urea12 92 kg N/ha urea13 12 kg N/ha UAN

Initial products1. Hibrix2. IPUSagro3. Wmf4. TM215. Mcalpine P6. Calsap7. Balance8. Nufarm9. FlexiN/UAN10. Summit11.CSBP

Cross treatments- what and when

# final treatments rates methods timing 1 timing 2 application1 Ipusagro 3 kg/ha twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS 400L water/ha2 Grazers 250 ml/ha twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS in 250Lwater/ha3 Summit Maxamflo 83 L/ha Maxamflo once only! 3.5WAS spray4 CSBP NS51 120 kg/ha NS51 tissue test 3.5WAS topdressed5 CaCl2 10 L/ha twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS with 30 L water6 Calsap with water 6 L Calsap twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS with 30 L water7 Calsap with UAN 6 L Calsap twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS with 30L UAN8 control (nil) nil9 12 kg N/ha urea 25 kg urea/ha 3.5WAS topdressed

10 23kg N/ha urea 50 kg urea/ha 3.5WAS topdressed11 46 kg N/ha urea 100 kg urea/ha 3.5WAS topdressed12 92 kg N/ha urea 200 kg urea/ha 3.5WAS topdressed13 12 kg N/ha UAN 30 L UAN twice 3.5WAS 9 WAS spray

Plot layout

Crop at about 4 leaf stagehigh fertility to the left, low to the right

92 kg N/ha plot at 2nd node stageN was applied to the left

3 metres of the 4 metre plot

IPUSagro plot at 2nd node stageN was applied to the left 3 metres of the 4 metre plot

Harvest resultsapplied nitrogen profit vs conctrolkg N/ha kg N/ha main plot fertilising $/ha $/ha

Trt # subplot treatments minus plus minus plus minus plus1 Ipusagro twice 0 52 4.29 5.43 -32 -72 Grazers twice 0 52 4.20 5.20 -61 -753 Summit Maxamflow 19 71 4.70 5.70 61 444 CSBP 44 96 5.08 5.99 135 625 CaCl2 twice 0 52 4.34 5.26 -17 -586 Calsap in water twice 0 52 4.37 5.45 -9 -17 Calsap in UAN twice 24 76 4.64 5.65 40 278 control (nil) 0 52 4.40 5.45 0 09 12 kg N/ha urea 12 64 4.58 5.55 37 1310 24 kg N/ha urea 24 76 4.89 5.58 114 611 48 kg N/ha urea 48 100 4.96 5.82 103 4512 96 kg N/ha urea 96 148 5.48 6.16 193 8313 12kg N/ha UAN twice 24 76 5.09 5.90 174 103

mean 22 74 4.69 5.63 56.8 18.5LSD 0.39 0.39 117 117

significantly different from control in bold nil nitrogen treatments in red boldwheat $300/t, N about $1.35/kg, Spud, Maxamflow and NS 51at current prices (+$30/t)

GY t/ha

Yield response to nitrogen inputs

Dollars and cents?

• The slopes of the fitted lines give responses of 10 and 7 kg grain per kg N for the minus and plus fertilizer treatments at seeding respectively.

• If you had known about the season, at $0.3 /kg for wheat and $1.33 /kg for N it would have paid to use the highest rate of N on both (plus/minus) sown fertilizer treatments.

Conclusions

• Products need testing over a wide range of sites, soils, seasons and management conditions.

• The resourcing of such testing is the responsibility of the promoters

• For this site in an exceptional season no response was obtained to the non-nitrogen products

Acknowledgements

• Graham White and father• Andrew Kenny• WMG• DAFWA• Summit• CSBP • IPUSagro, Grazers, Calsap (Optima)• And in particular, Joel Andrew

Questions?

Yield and proteins