Kojonup Area Manager Chloe Turner leading a local Field Walk at the Rylington Park Phosphorus Seed Loading Trial.

Showing a great deal of resolve in overcoming lockdown conditions and a general state of uncertainty in early 2020, we were able to continue with much needed field trials.

The Field Research team did well to respond to testing conditions and adapted with what had to be a flexible approach to the season.

That unwavering persistence paid off and with all trials now harvested, the results are currently being analysed. Once completed, growers will be able to access the latest findings from trials that last year extended across the WA Wheatbelt.

In 2020, the Field Research team continued to investigate the following key themes and questions:

• Short and long-term comparisons of potassium forms and placement for cereals and broadleaf crops.
• Manganese supply in contemporary cropping rotations.
• Phosphorus requirements of new high-yielding, mid and long-season wheat lines with different times of sowing.
• The opportunity for early sown winter wheat and the role of different phosphorus and nitrogen regimes for best management practice.
• Nitrogen apex yield trials for realising genetic potential of current, popular wheat varieties.
• Local phosphorus soil test and rate responses, alone and in conjunction with factorial nitrogen and potassium rates.
• Seed barley nutrient profiles and subsequent crop performance.
• The best soil potassium extraction methods and interpretation work.

We are greatly appreciative of the many farmers who offered enormous help in providing trial sites and getting trials established.

Without this assistance, the particularly difficult climate for logistics in early 2020 would have severely limited what could be done. In essence, a season of valuable research findings could easily have been lost without the help of everyone involved.

Growers should keep in touch with their local Summit Area Manager for all the new data and information that will flow from the 2020 trial program.

We have also recently upgraded our website to make viewing results easier. Growers are encouraged to visit the site regularly and keep up-to-date.

Trial results will be loaded onto the Field Research and Agronomy section as they become available. By using filters on the trial map, growers can select a year, a crop type and a nutrient (or any combination of the three) to access results they have an interest in.