NEWSLETTER NO. 65July 1986

Next Meeting Annual General Meeting

on Thursday, 31 July, 1986 at 5.30 p.m.

at Australian Mineral Foundation Conyngham Street, Glenside.

Programme

5.30 -6.15 pm Nigel Monteith on the 'Role of private consultants in agriculture in southern Australia'

6.15 pm Annual General Meeting Business session and election of officers President, President-elect, Secretary, Treasurer, Editor, Committee members (6)

6.45 pm Pre-dinner drinks

7.15 pm Dinner (cost $20)

8.15 pm Tony Brown on the 'Establishment of a livestock industry in China’

Please ringSteve Powles (08) 272-2018 )Paul Quigley (08) 333-2491 ) 372-2444 (work)Tony Rathjen (08) 278-2794 )Trevor Dillon (088) 21-1555 Neville Sharpe (085) 20-2212

as soon as possible if you wish to attend the dinner.

Nigel Monteith is the Managing Director of AACM (Australian Agricultural Consulting and Management Co. Pty. Ltd.), AACM is the largest local agricultural consulting firm and one of the five major firms in Australia. Currently it has projects in Western Australia and Northern Territory and in the Sudan, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Thailand, China and the Solomon Islands.

Nigel Monteith graduated from Sydney University and gained a Masters degree from the University of Hawaii. He worked with the Soil Conservation Authority of New South Wales and then with C.S.R. in Fiji and North Queensland. From 1963-1972 hewas a Senior

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Lecturer in Agronomy at the University of New England during which time he worked on a livestock project in the Argentine. Following two years in Iran on watershed management and then Mexico on arid zone development and four years with the World Bank, he joined AACM in 1980.

Is there anyone anywhere with better credentials to speak on the role of agricultural consultants??

Tony Brown

Tony came originally from Victoria where he worked as an adviser on the south-west coast at Warnambool for 15 years. During that time his areas of specialty covered sheep, beef, dairying, pastures, cereals and oilseeds, economics and computing.

He was invited to be one member of a two-man team to establish a livestock demonstration unit on a large State Farm in the mountainous part of South China. This was undertaken in 1980-81. Since then, his experience has been called on twice by the World Bank for short-term feasibility studies concerned with livestock in other parts of China.

Tony was appointed to his current position of Senior District Officer for the Department of Agriculture in the Lower North in March 1985. He and his family have settled in Nuriootpa.

While wheat-growing is profitable, it is also, to most men an agreeable life, being free from unremitting toil. All machinery for the cultivation of the land is now of large size; the plough behind which the farmer wearily trudged all day is a thing of the past. The great harvesting machines, too, only require the guiding hand of the master, who is thus freed from all the heavy work formerly associated with the ingathering. The wheat-grower of today has an occupation in which is combined that of a trained mechanic, that of a business man for the administration of his farm, and that of a professional man for the conduct of his farming operations. Is it any wonder that wheat-growing has an appeal that few other occupations have?"

A.H.E. McDonald, Chief Inspector of Agriculture Agricultural Gazette of NSW March 1, 1923 p 181.

This newsletter is being mailed to a number of people who indicated their interest in the Crop Science Society at the meeting on weeds. Of these, only those who join the Crop Science Society will receive future newsletters. Current membership fee is $7 per annum.

The next newsletter will feature an article by Robin Graham on the role of the tissue tests for plant nutrition.

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PLANT ANALYSIS FOR FIELD CROPS AND PASTURES

Compiled by a Department of Agriculture working party (Denis Elliott, Dale Lewis, Don McCarthy, Jock McFarlane, Tim Prance, Doug Reuter and Tom Yeatman).

The SA Department of Agriculture offers a soil and plant analysis service to help rural producers make the right fertiliser decisions. This commercial service is known as the SA Soil and Plant Analysis Service (SASPAS).

Australian scientists recently developed a range of plant tests for some of the field crops and pasture legumes widely grown in SA. These tests are included in the present SASPAS service.

Reliable interpretations can be made only where plant samples have been properly and carefully collected and handled according to the sampling instructions provided in the SASPAS kits.

This fact sheet contains information for interpreting plant tests for which reliable standards are known. It also gives general fertiliser guidelines for correcting nutrient deficiencies revealed by the plant analysis.

Plant requirements

For optimum growth, plants require an adequate supply of 13 essential nutrients, but the amount of each nutrient needed is different. The macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium are required by plants in far greater amounts than are the trace elements copper, zinc, manganese, iron, boron, molybdenum, (and cobalt for legumes).

Plant growth is reduced when the concentration of one or more of the essential plant nutrients in young, actively growing plant tissues approaches or falls below a narrow, critical concentration range. Plants containing higher concentrations are considered to be adequately supplied with this nutrient at the time the sample was taken. These concepts are illustrated and described in figure 1.

Figure 1: Relationship between plant growth and plant nutrient concentration

This curve is established experimentally by applying increasing amounts of fertiliser (containing the specific plant nutrient) to a very deficient soil. Plant growth and nutrient concentration in specific plant parts (eg YEB) are determined on several occasions.

Plant growth increases markedly as plant nutrient concentration increases (AB: deficiency zone), until adequate concentrations are reached (BC). At very high plant concentrations growth is depressed by toxicity (CD).

At very low and at toxic nutrient concentrations, specific plant symptoms may occur in association with reduced growth.

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Lucerne

The plant testing standards (SASPAS group A tests) for the top 10 to 15 cm of fresh shoot growth, sampled before flowering, are derived from New Zealand research (see table 3).

Table 3: Plant analysis standards for the top 10 to 15 cm at fresh lucerne shoots sampled before flowering starts

Plant nutrient concentration*Nutrient Deficient

(less than)Critical range Adequate range

Nitrogen (%) 4.0 4.0-4.4 4.5-5.0Phosphorus (%) 0.20 0.20-0.25 0.26-0.70Potassium(%) 1.8 1.8-2.4 2.5-3.8Sulfur (%) 0.20 0.20-0.25 0.26-0.50Calcium (%) 0.25 0.25-0.50 0.51-3.00Magnesium (%) 0.20 0.20-0.30 0.31-1.00Copper(mg/kg) 6 6-10 11-30Zinc(mg/kg) 11 11-20 21-70Manganese(mg/kg) 20 20-30 31-100

*Standards are those published from New Zealand research.

Fertiliser recommendations

If your SASPAS plant analysis results reveal a definite or potential nutrient deficiency, follow these steps.

Apply solid fertiliser or trace element foliar sprays (see table 6) to the existing crop/pasture immediately (if this is possible).

Confirm the degree of deficiency with a soil test and apply a more appropriate fertiliser next year or increase the rate of fertiliser you are presently using, or sow crops or varieties that are more tolerant of the deficiency revealed.

If necessary, contact a Department of Agriculture adviser for fertiliser advice on the major nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur (fertiliser rate, product and method of application).

Contact a Department of Agriculture adviser whore dual or multiple deficiencies exist.

General fertiliser guidelines for correcting trace element deficiencies are given in table 6.

Table 6: General fertiliser guidelines for correcting trace element deficiencies during crop and pasture growth

Deficiency Crops Legume-based pasturesrevealedCopper Apply a copper foliar spray Apply a copper foliar spray

(100 g copper/ha) before growth (100 g copper/ha) beforestage 10. flowering to pasture seed Follow-up soil applications will crops.

be required -- consult a For broadacre pasture,Department of Agriculture adviser. fertiliser applications

will be required to improve seed yield.

Zinc Apply a zinc foliar spray (330 g Apply a zinc foliar sprayzinc/ha). (330 g zinc/ha) before Consult a Department of Agriculture flowering to pastureadviser for subsequent fertiliser seed crops.advice. For broadacre pasture,

fertiliser applications will be required to improve seed yield.

Manganese Apply a manganese foliar spray Apply a manganese foliar(1.2 kg manganese/ha). Repeated spray (1.2 kg manganese/ha)foliar sprays may be needed. to lucerne seed crops.Consult fact sheet 10/84 Manganese deficiency in cereals for subsequent treatment of the area.In areas prone to producing split seed in lupins, apply a manganese foliar spray (1.2 kg manganese/ha) at mid-flowering on the primary laterals.

Iron Apply an iron foliar spray (0.9 kg iron/ha) as soon as symptoms appear.

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Sample during tillering (that is between stages 2 and 5 as shown in figure 3). Normally this is between 6 and 12 weeks after sowing.

Collect at least 100 YEB leaves in the field.

Figure 3: Growth stages in cereals.

2. BASAL STEMS are sampled seven weeks after sowing (that is at stages 2 or 3 as shown in figure 3) for the group B test. This is the best plant test for assessing the nitrogen status of cereals during early tillering.

Pull up at least 80 plants, including the upper roots.

Shake off most of the adhering soil and put the plants into one of the brown paper bags.

At home, briefly rinse (5-10 seconds) the lower part of the plant shoots and roots under running rain water. Do not immerse plants in water. Drain excess water from the plants.

Cut off the roots.

Remove all tillers and the leaves that surround them (see figure 2a). Snip off YEB and the emerging leaf blade where they join the main stem (shown as YEB and EB in figure 2a). Discard any remaining leaves. You now have the basal stem.

Lightly brush off any surface moisture with tissue paper.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you decide to sample cereal YEBs and basal stems in the same area, always collect the YEB sample first. Then collect plants for the basal stem sample in a separate traverse. This will minimize contamination of the YEB sample.

SAMPLING MEDIC and SUBCLOVER

The YOUNGEST OPEN LEAF blades (shown as YOL in figure 4) are sampled for group A tests.

Samples can be collected up until early flowering.

Collect at least 150 YOL leaves.

Do not include petioles or stems in the sample.

Do not sample plants adjacent to dung patches.

Plants are easier to sample in pastures that have not been grazed for two to three weeks.

Figure 4a: Medic at rosette stage (similar Figure 4B: Medic runner duringfor subclover early runner extension (similar

for subclover).

SAMPLING LUCERNE

Collect samples before flowering starts for group A tests.

Cut the top (uppermost) 10 to 15 cm (four to six inches) of fresh shoot growth from at least 30 plants.