Spelling strategies for recovery of pasture condition

This work will progess and extend recommendations and guidelines for use of integrated wet season spelling in Queenslands savannahs and woodlands. The research will generate a greater ecological and pasture production understanding of pastures and soils that exist in C land condition areas (major landtypes), and their recovery. Practical, cost-effective spelling regimes will be developed. Research will be conducted on-property with small plot exclosures and plots with controlled utilisation levels, examining ecological responses to different spelling regimes. This information will improve bio-economic modelling capacity. Industry consultations with producers and field staff will drive implementation of the recommendations arising.

Northern Grazing Systems Project Development

Control of grazing distribution, management of stocking rate, wet season spelling and fire

A guide to the process of Mitchell grass recovery

In western Queensland, severe drought conditions began in late 2001 and did not generally ease until the 2008/09 summer. Despite the ability of Mitchell grass plants to become dormant during drought, a large proportion of plants appeared to be dead rather than drought-dormant by the end of the 2002/03 summer. Tillers and remaining leaves were blackened and unpalatable to livestock. The term Mitchell grass dieback was coined by producers and other observers to describe what had occurred, although most were confident that the grass would recover with the breaking of the drought. Mitchell grass plants generally failed to respond to widespread average summer rains in early 2004 (> 250 mm). Observation suggested that moisture had penetrated to a soil depth of about 60 cm and a response from plants was expected. When there was no general response, research into the reasons for this was initiated (NBP.348 'Mitchell grass death in Queensland: extent, economic impact and potential for recovery'; 2005-07). This included an investigation of discrete areas of pasture that had responded to the 2003-04 summer rain. Further declines in condition of Mitchell grasslands occurred between winter 2005 and winter 2006 and, by 2006, field surveys indicated that 53% of this pasture community was in poor (C) condition, primarily due to dieback. Measurements at some sites suggested practices such as wet season spelling and burning can pre-condition Mitchell grass pasture for greater resistance to drought-induced dieback. However, the casual mechanisms and the effective timing and frequency of these practices remained unclear.

SF06016 Low Chill Peaches Online

The aim of this project is to bring information on low chill stonefruit varieties to a user in a clear and friendly format to aid in that decision process. Low Chill Australia see this project as high priority for its members to be competitive by growing high quality, early season peach and nectarine fruit varieties. Data will be collated from grower surveys, breeder’s descriptions and literature, and entered into an Access Database and published on the web for stonefruit growers in tropical and sub-tropical regions across Australia. Links will be available from the Low Chill Australia and Summerfruit Australia websites.

Integrated crop management for brassica production

Early season beneficials in brassica crops.

Better Macadamia Crop Forecasting - Part 2

The continually expanding macadamia industry needs an accurate crop forecasting system to allow it to develop effective crop handling and marketing strategies, particularly when the industry faces recurring cycles of unsustainably high and low commodity prices. This project aims to provide the AMS with a robust, reliable predictive model of national crop volume within 10% of the actual crop by 1 April each year by factoring known seasonal, environmental, cultural, climatic, management and biological constraints, together with the existing AMS database which includes data on tree numbers, tree age, variety, location and previous season's production.

Controlling Pythium and associated pests in ginger

This project is to identify treatments that ginger growers can use to control two serious soil-borne pathogens that have emerged and threaten the viability of the ginger industry. Pythium myriotylum, responsible for a severe rhizome rot, is the more serious of the two. It was first identified by ginger growers in the 2007/08 growing season, with some producers reporting total crop losses in some blocks. Symphylids are wingless soil-inhabiting arthropods that feed on the ginger plant's root tips and impair the plants´ ability to absorb nutrients, seriously restricting plant growth and development. Damage caused by symphylids to ginger roots is also expected to facilitate entry of Pythium into the plant.

Shepard avocado sensory analysis

Avocados Australia has commissioned a study to evaluate whether the current dry matter maturity standards for Shepard avocado are reasonable, or whether they need to be refined. A sensory analysis program will be conducted from within the 2010 Shepard avocado season.

Controlling plant and fruit diseases in strawberry fields

Grey mould, powdery mildew and stem-end rot are major diseases affecting the strawberry industry. Some of the chemicals used are ineffective under wet weather, have limits to the number of applications allowed in a season or may become ineffective in the long-term because of the development of resistance in the fungi. We will assess the effectiveness of the chemicals currently used by the strawberry industry and whether the fruit rot fungi are resistant to these fungicides. We will screen other chemicals that are used to control these diseases in related crops. We will also evaluate new chemicals in collaboration with the crop protectant industry. We will also undertake similar work to control nematodes in strawberry fields.

ACIAR Improving Postrainy Sorghum Varieties Grain and Fodder in India

Sorghum grown in India in the post-rainy season (Rabi) relies on residual soil moisture, and the crop is commonly exposed to terminal drought stress. But there is a ready market for its high-quality grain and stover (used as fodder on dairy farms). Steps to improve productivity while maintaining quality offer an attractive opportunity for sorghum farmers to improve their incomes. Genetically improving the efficiency of using stored soil moisture is a prime target to maximise grain/stover production and quality of Rabi sorghum. This project aims to achieve this through the application of DNA sequences known as quantitative trait loci (QTLs). The project scientists will introduce marker-assisted introgression of stay-green QTLs into sorghum lines, enhancing both the quality and the quantity of grain/stover of postrainy sorghum. They will also use modelling to identify the key physiological traits involved in a higher, more stable yield across water-limited environments of India and Australia, and the key stay-green QTLs contributing to these traits. The publicly available QTL isolines lines developed in this project will be the basis of new varieties to be bred in a subsequent phase.

Remote Sensing - based precision agriculture tool for the sugar industry

The project will produce practical and relevant benchmarks, protocols and recommendations for the adoption of remote sensing technologies for improved in season management and therefore production within the Australian sugar cane industry.

ACIAR Feasibility of farmers managing climate related crop production risk in India

Validation of new Indian seasonal climate forecasting products. In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) kharif crops are heavily dependent on summer monsoon rains, where the timing and intensity of the rains affects crop yield. The majority of farms in AP are small and marginal, making them very vulnerable to yield reductions. Farmers also lack access to relevant information that might enable them to respond to seasonal conditions. Enabling farmers to utilise seasonal climate forecasting would allow them to respond to seasonal variability. To do this, farmers need a forecasting system that indicates a specific management strategy for the upcoming season, and effective and timely communication of the forecast information. Current agro-meteorological advisories in AP are issued on a bi-weekly basis, and they are relevant to an agro-climatic zone scale which may not be sufficiently relevant at a village level. Also, the information in the advisories may not be necessarily packaged in way relevant to cropping decisions by farmers. The objectives of this project are to evaluate the skill of seasonal climate forecasts to be issued for the 2008 monsoon season, to assess crop management options in response to seasonal scenarios that capture the range of seasonal climatic variability, to develop and evaluate options for effective communication and adoption of climate forecasts and agricultural advisories, and to synthesise and report on options for future research investments into seasonal climate forecasting.

Using Trichogramma Westwood (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) for insect pest biological control in cotton crops: an Australian perspective.

Trichogramma Westwood egg parasitoids alone generally fail to suppress heliothine pests when released in established cotton-growing regions. Factors hindering their success include indiscriminate use of detrimental insecticides, compensation for minimal pest larval hatch due to their activity via reduced larval cannibalism or mortality in general, singly laid heliothine eggs avoiding detection and asynchronous development benefiting host over parasitoid. Yet, despite these limitations, relatively large Trichogramma pretiosum Riley populations pervade and effectively suppress Helicoverpa (Hardwick) pests in Australian Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner)-transgenic cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., crops, especially in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) of tropical northern Australia, where their impact on the potentially resistant pest species, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), is considered integral to the local insecticide resistance management (IRM) strategy for continued, sustainable Bt-transgenic cotton production. When devoid of conventional insecticides, relatively warm and stable conditions of the early dry season in winter grown ORIA Bt-transgenic cotton crops are conducive to Trichogramma proliferation and biological control appears effective. Further, there is considerable scope to improve Trichogramma's biological control potential, in both the ORIA and established cotton-growing regions, via habitat manipulation. It is proposed that Trichogramma may prove equally effective in developing agricultural regions of monsoonal northern Australia, and that environmental constraints on Trichogramma survival, and those of other natural enemies, require due consideration prior to their successful application in biological control programs.

Short- and long-term movement patterns in the freshwater whipray (Himantura dalyensis) determined by the signal processing of passive acoustic telemetry data.

Patterns of movement in aquatic animals reflect ecologically important behaviours. Cyclical changes in the abiotic environment influence these movements, but when multiple processes occur simultaneously, identifying which is responsible for the observed movement can be complex. Here we used acoustic telemetry and signal processing to define the abiotic processes responsible for movement patterns in freshwater whiprays (Himantura dalyensis). Acoustic transmitters were implanted into the whiprays and their movements detected over 12 months by an array of passive acoustic receivers, deployed throughout 64 km of the Wenlock River, Qld, Australia. The time of an individual's arrival and departure from each receiver detection field was used to estimate whipray location continuously throughout the study. This created a linear-movement-waveform for each whipray and signal processing revealed periodic components within the waveform. Correlation of movement periodograms with those from abiotic processes categorically illustrated that the diel cycle dominated the pattern of whipray movement during the wet season, whereas tidal and lunar cycles dominated during the dry season. The study methodology represents a valuable tool for objectively defining the relationship between abiotic processes and the movement patterns of free-ranging aquatic animals and is particularly expedient when periods of no detection exist within the animal location data.

Estimating winter crop area across seasons and regions using time-sequential MODIS imagery.

The wheat grain industry is Australia's second largest agricultural export commodity. There is an increasing demand for accurate, objective and near real-time crop production information by industry. The advent of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite platform has augmented the capability of satellite-based applications to capture reflectance over large areas at acceptable pixel scale, cost and accuracy. The use of multi-temporal MODIS-enhanced vegetation index (EVI) imagery to determine crop area was investigated in this article. Here the rigour of the harmonic analysis of time-series (HANTS) and early-season metric approaches was assessed when extrapolating over the entire Queensland (QLD) cropping region for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Early-season crop area estimates, at least 4 months before harvest, produced high accuracy at pixel and regional scales with percent errors of -8.6% and -26% for the 2005 and 2006 seasons, respectively. In discriminating among crops at pixel and regional scale, the HANTS approach showed high accuracy. The errors for specific area estimates for wheat, barley and chickpea were 9.9%, -5.2% and 10.9% (for 2005) and -2.8%, -78% and 64% (for 2006), respectively. Area estimates of total winter crop, wheat, barley and chickpea resulted in coefficient of determination (R(2)) values of 0.92, 0.89, 0.82 and 0.52, when contrasted against the actual shire-scale data. A significantly high coefficient of determination (0.87) was achieved for total winter crop area estimates in August across all shires for the 2006 season. Furthermore, the HANTS approach showed high accuracy in discriminating cropping area from non-cropping area and highlighted the need for accurate and up-to-date land use maps. The extrapolability of these approaches to determine total and specific winter crop area estimates, well before flowering, showed good utility across larger areas and seasons. Hence, it is envisaged that this technology might be transferable to different regions across Australia.