GRDC Podcast

The future of agriculture

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Like any other industry, agriculture needs to know where it’s going so it can create a pathway to the future. That’s where deep thinkers like Prof...

Keeping one step ahead of fungicide resistance means setting a fast pace

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The speed at which fungicide resistance can develop leaves no room for complacency. For example there are examples where spot form of net blotch has d...

Test for beet western yellows virus

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Growers and advisers are urged to go beyond a visual inspection of crops to determine the exact cause of ill-thrift in a crop. Research that followe...

Grazing by numbers

15 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Grazing dual purpose crops can be very profitable with high livestock prices. So doing it well quickly translates into extra dollars on the bottom lin...

Digital Soil Mapping

08 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the 2020 Grains Research Update at Goondiwindi digital soil mapping specialist Ed Jones from the University of Sydney, gave a presentation on mappi...

Bait, Bash Or Burn – Latest Advice On Snail Control

08 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Snails are one of those pests that can’t be controlled by any one tool – but a significant amount of research is happening across the country to g...

Early sown canola digs deep

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

New research has shown just how deep canola roots will travel in their search for moisture late in the season. Trials have shown that there are signif...

A Growers Perspective On Micronutrient Foliar Application

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A grain grower survey conducted across 25 farm businesses in Western Australia’s northern agricultural region found the majority considered their ce...

Controlled Traffic Farming in Low Rainfall Zones of southeastern Australia

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Controlled Traffic Farming is in simple terms driving your heavy vehicles on the same wheel tracks every time you’re in the paddock. In Australia’...

Using Micronutrients To Boost Profits In Medium Rainfall Zone Systems

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The GRDC has invested in a two-year project that aims to identify the requirements for, and benefits of, micronutrient foliar application in medium-to...

Fall Armyworm

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fall Armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda was detected in Australia for the first time in January 2020 and a warning was issued to grain growers to inspect...

Ironstone Gravel Soils

18 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ironstone gravels are important cropping soils and a better understanding about the mineralogy and physical characteristics of these soils, especially...

Faba Beans Benefits In WA

11 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

GRDC’s investment in faba bean breeding has contributed to the delivery of new and improved Faba bean varieties to grain growers. In Western Austra...

Tackling multiple soil problems, the smart way

11 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new research project in the Southern Region will take the principles of Precision Agriculture and apply them to addressing sub-soil constraints. S...

Better Barley

04 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Farmers and their advisers, naturally, are mostly focused on growing better grain – finding those incremental improvements that can often mean so mu...

Faba Beans | A 40 Year Favourite For WA Grower Neil Wandel

04 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Esperance Port Zone grain grower Neil Wandel has been including faba beans in his crop rotations for 4 decades. While they might not be the highest va...

Resilience | The art of being a farmer (Part 2)

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The complexity of agriculture would lead some people to label farming as a form of art. Working with the climate, the landscape, the machinery, the cr...

Resilience | The art of being a farmer (Part 1)

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The complexity of agriculture would lead some people to label farming as a form of art. Working with the climate, the landscape, the machinery, the cr...

Sowing Spring (and Winter) wheats early on the Riverine Plains

19 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Trials undertaken on the Riverine Plains testing early sowing times for both spring and winter wheat varieties have produced some interesting results,...

Redlegged Earth Mite – a pesticide resistance evolution

19 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A key research question that has an appreciable bearing on our future management of this pest relates to the way in which resistance has evolved in th...

Interpreting Weather Forecasts

12 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At a meeting of the Esperance Port Zone, Regional Cropping Solutions Network, mid way through 2019 a decision was made to help grain growers better un...

Check your pulses

05 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

GRDC’s Pulsecheck program aims to introduce growers who are new to growing pulses to all the challenges and rewards to be had by diversifying into t...

Re-inventing oats

05 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Oats has a wonderful reputation amongst consumers, especially those in Asia, as a very healthy product. So it makes sense to find more ways to present...

Climbing Field Peas

29 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Field Peas can be problematic for WA growers to grow, but a simple management practice could change that. Dr Sarita Bennet from the Centre for Crop an...

Brome and barley grass – a lesson in resilience

29 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Just how quickly, as farmers, we can change the nature of weeds is perfectly spotlighted by how quickly barley grass and brome grass have reacted to o...

Making barley grass barely a problem

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Barley grass in the southern cropping region is becoming more prominent as a problem weed for croppers – as herbicide resistance emerges and as the ...

Lentils A Viable Option In WA

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior researcher Mark Seymour and Esperance Port Zone grain grower Ro...

These people will blow your mind – one story about SAGI

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

And you thought you were responsible for that amazing wheat crop. Think again. There are people in back offices all over Australia who know the seed y...

Soil sampling – some farmers just don’t dig it

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do you take soil samples from your paddocks? A leading soil scientist maintains that many farmers are leaving a lot of valuable information buried...

Counting Nematodes

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

They may be tiny but the damage they can potentially do is far from small. Root Lesion Nematodes are well known as a problem, but there is still much ...

Who’s the Boss – making canola crops more weed competitive

31 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Trials in Western Australia are showing how well canola can out compete ryegrass if some simple management changes are made. At a trial site in Kojunu...

Introducing pulses to acid soils

24 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Growers with acid soils know full well the risks involved in growing pulses. While new acid tolerant rhizobia are on the way, this podcast focusses on...

Strategic Nitrogen

18 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A leading soil scientist has argued for a more strategic approach to nitrogen application. One way of doing that is by increasing soil carbon levels. ...

Matching pre-emergent herbicide degradation to sowing time and condition

18 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Crop competition is one of the key pathways to controlling unwanted weeds in your paddocks. On this podcast we look at one trial in Western Australia ...

Watch out below! Fixing sub-soil problems

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How economically viable is incorporating organic matters into your sub-soil? That’s what new research funded by GRDC is trying to ascertain. While...

Assessing valuable on-farm agricultural lime sources

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Gillett from the WA’s eastern wheat belt has been making use of carbonate rich soils from his own farm to correct the pH of his farm’s acidic...

You can bank on this Genebank

04 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Australian Grains Genebank at Horsham is a critical stop along the long development pathway to deliver new varieties that will increase the profit...

Weeds, Speed and Resistance

04 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The speed at which weeds develop resistance to herbicides makes farmer vigilance if paramount importance. On this podcast, weed scientist, Dr Chris Pr...

Flexible flax

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Trials are underway in Western Australia to measure the suitability of Flax (or Linseed) as a viable and profitable break crop in systems that have fe...

Are insects chuffed with chaff?

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Entomologists, with the help of growers and grower groups, are looking at whether chaff lines and other harvest weed seed control are having an impact...

Investigating ways to boost profits from more efficient nutrient use in WA cropping systems

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

DPIRD researchers, led by Dr Craig Scanlan, have been investigating nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) crop use efficiency, soil storage a...

Balancing Tillage And Nutrition In WA's Water Repellent Sands

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sandy soils, typical to parts of Western Australia and found in South Australia’s and Victoria’s mallee country, create considerable and costly gr...

Shrinking the Yield Gap – the “secret” is out!

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Shrinking the difference between your possible crop yield and your actual crop yield is one way of increasing your profitability. On this podcast the ...

Roll Out the Snail Barrel

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A new grain cleaning method is being trialled in WA to enable growers to further reduce the presence of snails in their harvested grain and oilseeds. ...

Scratch the surface for answers to sub-soil contstraints

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The GRDC’s nutrition decisions following a dry season project is looking at a variety of ways to fix multiple soil constraints – pH, sodicity and ...

Climate Guides 2019

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

At a glance you can now determine just how much your local climate has changed over the past 60 years. The Bureau of Meteorology has published climate...

Non-wetting and compacting soils grower case study

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Esperance-based grower Gavin Egan started using clay spreading, delving and deep ripping to ameliorate soil water repellence and compaction issues sev...

Locating and assessing on-farm lime sources

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In Western Australia’s eastern wheatbelt the sand plain soils are prone to acidification. To neutralise the acidity grain growers apply coastal lime...

Big or Small – profitability is the key

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Not everyone can be in the Top 20 percent of growers. But YOU can. And the scale of your operation won’t put you into, or keep you out of, that excl...

Minimising Canola & Cereal Harvest Losses

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

An astounding $90 million worth of canola is estimated to be lost from the back of harvesters every year in Western Australia. In this podcast Planfar...

Why soil borne nutrient give a better response in wheat than introduced fertiliser

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Pulse growers consistently report a greater boost in cereal production following a pulse crop than they would normally get from manufactured nutrients...

Your Lime Calculator

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Decisions around lime applications to acid soils have suddenly become a lot easier with the availability of the iLime Calculator, a smartphone app tha...

Take the Slow Train to Fungicide Resistance

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fungicide resistance is inevitable. That’s a tough message to accept, but experts say resistance is like a train travelling to a destination – not...

Herbicide residues in soil – what is the scale and significance?

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Increasing herbicide use over the last two decades has led to concerns over the potential effects herbicides (and their residues) have on soil health....

Big is better

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Big is definitely the case when it comes to spray nozzle sizes, particularly when spraying in sensitive areas during summer. On this podcast, spray ex...

Sowing Summer Legumes

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The GRDC is leading a $16 million project focused boosting the resilience of mixed farms via successful incorporation of pasture legume species curren...

Trust Me – I’m a Farmer

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A leading science communicator says rather than educating the general public about farming, farmers should ensure that urban people trust farmers to h...

Boosting Underperforming Sandy Soils

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sandy soils account for five million hectares of Australia’s southern grain growing region. Crop water use and productivity on these sandy soils are...

Lime And Managing Soil Health

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Liming to maintain good soil pH levels and avoiding yield losses is just as important as applying fertiliser for maximising yields. If growers let so...

Nitrogen management in wheat

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Research undertaken by the Northern Grower Alliance has cast new light on the timing and method of nitrogen application. On this podcast, NGA’s Ri...

Managing Cabbage Aphid In WA

04 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A common pest for canola growers to monitor each Spring is the Cabbage Aphid. DPRID research officer Dusty Severtson describes where within the crop t...

Snails slow to take bait in warmer months

04 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Snails may be slow to move, but they are quick to survive baits during late Spring and Summer. This surprising development has been revealed as a resu...

Matching Nitrogen to Crop Needs

28 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nitrogen fertiliser is arguably a farmer’s biggest variable cost, year on year. Providing the correct amount of nitrogen to a growing crop is the ke...

Canopy infection by Blackleg – a new evolution

28 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Farmers in blackleg prone areas of Australia are generally competent in managing the disease in their canola crops. That is until the recent advent o...

Identifying Frost Damage

22 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Valuable frost research is equipping grain growers with practical information on how to identify frost damage in cereal crops. In this podcast WA De...

Detecting & Managing Blackleg In WA Canola Crops

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Blackleg is a common yet economically serious canola disease in Western Australia (WA). While it has the potential to cause severe yield loss, the goo...

Irrigated Cropping Council Survey - Do the numbers before turning on the tap

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

With water such a valuable commodity nowadays, it’s little wonder that irrigators ask themselves whether they are better off selling their water or ...

Just How Many Russian Wheat Aphids Is Too Many

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Trials are underway to determine accurate control thresholds for Russian Wheat Aphid under Australian conditions. The national trials are also looking...

Managing Diamondback Moth In WA

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Diamondback Moth is an occasional pest of canola, but severe infestations of adults and/or caterpillars can cause up to 80 per cent yield losses in ca...

Assessing Frost Damage

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is focussed on the second research component of the Frost Mapping project, assessing frost damage before its visible to the naked eye, us...

Frost Mapping

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A research effort led by CSIRO, with GRDC investment, has developed a modeling tool that could in future years help growers rapidly understand the ext...

Spot Form Net Blotch On Barley

31 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Using a GRDC/RCSN ‘local project’ investment into tactical fungicide use involving a local western region farm adviser is addressing the issue of ...

Keeping Glyphosate Sustainable

24 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Glyphosate resistance is on the rise in Australia’s grain growing regions. With 17 key weed species already identified as resistant, sustainable her...

Hyper Yielding Cereals Project

17 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Grain growers in Tasmania could be averaging cereal yields of 7 tonnes per hectare. The top 10 percent of those growers could be doing double that ton...

Aphids in wheat

10 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers at the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries are testing the law of unintended consequences – in this case whether wheat va...

Grazing cereals reap big benefits

26 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For many central western NSW grain growers in 2018, the decision to graze their cereal crops reaped big rewards. But it’s not as simple as letting a...

Hyper Yielding Cereals - WA Study Tour

26 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After identifying a need to lift cereal yields to take advantage of the extensive soil amelioration work that’s been happening in Western Australia ...

Birchip Cropping Group Seeder Demo Day

19 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) seeder demonstration day was held in April 2019 to compare six commercially-available conventional seeders and precis...

Tips On Monitoring For Insects In Early Season Canola

19 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Monitoring a crop is an integral part of a growers integrated pest management (IPM) strategy. Not only does it reveal if any damage is occurring, it a...

Closing The HRZ Yield Gap

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Grain yields in the high-rainfall zone (HRZ) have always posed a paradox, remaining far lower than modelling had predicted. However, that is now chang...

Crown rotten luck

05 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s actually not about luck. Controlling Crown Rot is about good management. On this podcast, senior plant pathologist, Andrew Milgate, from the NS...

Value of field days to grain growers

29 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Hagley in northern Tasmania is the site of an extensive trial dedicated to helping the state’s grain growers to achieve higher yields of quality fee...

Emerging management tips for early sown winter wheats

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Winter wheat varieties allow wheat growers in the Southern Region to sow much earlier than currently practised, meaning a greater proportion of farm c...

Regional Cropping Solutions Network - WA

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Regional Cropping Solutions Network encourages West Australian grain growers to voice local farming concerns and put forward research ideas to hel...

Mechanical Weeder Marks A New Era In Tactical Tillage

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Managing herbicide resistant weeds has become a major concern for grain growers, especially in the northern region which has the highest number of gly...

Perennial wheat and grazing

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The push to develop perennial cereals suitable for the Australian landscape is gathering pace with longevity of a new generation of plants being a key...

Snail baiting in southern Western Australia

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A new online publication is available for Western Australia’s southern grain growers who have a snail, slug or slater problem in their crops. Crop ...

Mouse status in southern cropping systems

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast, CSIRO’s Steve Henry outlines the research he has been doing with mice in cropping systems. Part of that project, which GRDC has inv...

Improving nitrogen use efficiency using mid-row banding

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Maximising the benefit derived from applied fertiliser has never been more important as nutrient demands increase. Researchers in southern central NS...

Research Probes Solutions For Canola Sclerotinia

24 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sclerotinia stem rot costs western and southern canola growers around $59 million dollars in crop losses annually. In today’s podcast, Dr Lars Kamp...

Fungicide Resistance Investment

24 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fungicide Resistance in cereal crops such as barley could become as significant an issue for the Australian grains industry as Herbicide resistance in...

Crop disease in 2019 - what are the chances?

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Following a dry 2018 what is the likelihood of disease risk this season. According to the experts, the risk of disease this year can not be ignored. O...

Novel technologies applied to weed management

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Just how close is Australia’s grains industry to being able to incorporate robotics into a weed control program? Well a lot closer than perhaps many...

Crop sequencing from cotton to grain

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Impact of cotton production on grain production in the north. Transitioning from dryland cotton back into a cereal or pulse crop can be problematic fo...

Canola first

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Early sowing of canola has clear advantages as is reflected by the number of growers choosing to position their canola seeding program first. On this...

Soil Compaction

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Soil is made up of organic and mineral particles and in between these particles are tiny air pockets containing water, soil microbes and fauna. These ...

Pre-seeding checklist for mitigating frost risk

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In frost-prone areas, it is important to have a comprehensive frost management strategy as part of annual farm planning. In this podcast, Dr Ben Biddu...

Soil amelioration: A Grower case study

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by what he saw a neighbouring doing and with GRDC's investment in the Soils Constraints West project & DPIRD support, Corrigin based grain gr...

Tips and tools to manage subsoil constraints

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Western Australian grain growers face a lot of constraints when it comes to the soils they work to grow the grain we demand.In this podcast we’ll lo...

Pre-emergent challenges after soil amelioration

03 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When used strategically, soil amelioration can help grain growers overcome a suite of soil and agronomic constraints, including acidity, water repelle...