Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons^™

Swathing Field Crops In The South-West, R Snowball

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Swathing is a long established method of haarvesting field crops, especially in parts of Europe and North America. It involves cutting the crop when the seed is nearly mature and laying it in a swath or windrow to dry. when the crop has dried it is harvested using conventional harvesting machinery with a pick-up attatchment.

On the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, an area prone to strong moist sea breezes, swathing barley is a common practice. More farmers along Western Australia's south coast are also swathing barley to reduce losses from conventional harvesting. Pod shattering losses of lupins and field …

Row Spacing And Cereal Crop Yield, R N. Burch, M. W. Perry

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Cereal growers in western Australia have, traditionally, burned cereal stubbles. Burning stubble residues reduces weed seed populations and fungal pathogens, but its main purpose has been to eliminate straw which might cause blockages od seeding machinery and por see-bed preparation in the time critical seeding operation.

In 982, the Department of Agriculture began a project to determine whether wider spaced rows also depressed cereal yields in Western Australia. This article summarises some of the important results from that work.

Phomopsis-Resistanct Lupins : Breakthrough Towards The Control Of Lupinosis, W A. Cowling, J. G. Allen, P Mcr. Wood, J. Hamblin

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Attemots to control lupinosis in sheep have been thwarted by the unpredictable occurence of the disease in the field. The complex interaction of the toxin-producing fungus (Phomopsis leptostromiformis) with its host (the lupin plant), together with variable weather and paddock grazing conditions, have made it difficult to predict when stock are in danger of contracting the disease. The risk of lupinosis discourages many farmers from growing lupins, despite the many potential benefits of including them in crop rotations.

A team of Department of Agriculture plant breeders, plant pathologists, and animal scientists set out in the mid 1970s to find resistance …

Lupin Processing : A New Development, R S. Coffey

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

For a number of years Grain Pool marketing representatives have approachd stockfeed manufacturers around the world in an attempt to broaden the market for Western Australian lupin seed.

Wherever there was enough consumer interest to conduct a nutritional evaluation of the product, lupins were found to be non competitive for inclusion in both pig and poultry rations, while at the same price being acceptable as a cattle feed ingredient. The reason for this disparity proved to be the varying degrees of fibre digestability of lupins for the various livestock tested.

It became apparent that the fibrous lupin seed coat or …

Reduced-Branching Lupins, R J. Delane, J. Hamblin, J. S. Gladstones

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The flowering time of present narrow-leafed lupin varieties is now probably correct for most of Western Australia's grain growing areas. However lupin yields are frequently not as high as might be expected, in either low or high yielding sistuations, and further marked yield improvements seem theoretically possible. A likely reason for seed yields being below expectations is the growth and development pattern of present lupin varieties.

Some new lupin types in which branching is suppressed genetically - known as reduced-branching types - are being studied. These types could be useful in some lupin growing areas to help overcome seed yield …

Research Into Lupin Root Diseases, M W. Sweetingham

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

increased yield from wheat after lupins, obtained without the need for applied nitrogen, has led many farmers to adopt a 1:1 wheat-lupin rotation. One of the advantages of lupins is the cleaning effect they have by reducing wheat diseases such as septoria and yellow leaf spot and root diseases, in particular take-all.

Before the present research projext started, little was known about lupin root diseases, or what effect lupins grown in close rotation with wheat might have on the build-up of root disease of lupins.

Preventing Lupinosis With Phomopsis-Resistant Lupins, Jeremy G. Allen, W. A. Cowling

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Lupinosis is one of the major livestock siseases in Western Australia. It is caused by stock eating toxins produced by the fungus Phomopsis leptostromiformis which colonises the stems of dead lupin plants.

In 975, the Department of Agriculture started a breeding programme to develop Phompsis-resistant lupins to overcome or control lupinosis. In the previous issue of this Journal the results of small plot evaluations of new lines of Phompsis-resistant lupins developed in this programme were reported. This article describes the first trial involving grazing of Phompsis-resistant lupins.