Life Sciences Commons^™

Stem Rust And Its Management In Wheat, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) is a foliar disease that can significantly reduce wheat yields if it occurs in early spring and is not controlled. Risk factors, management strategies (including variety choices and foliar fungicides), and yield loss from different varieties are discussed here.

In Western Australia, stem rust typically causes losses of 10 to 50% in wheat, but this can increase to 90% when it occurs in early spring and is not controlled.

Stem rust affects wheat and triticale, but barley can also be a host during summer months.Stem rust produces large, reddish-brown spore masses on both …

Claying To Ameliorate Soil Water Repellence, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Claying involves adding and incorporating clay-rich subsoil into water repellent topsoil to overcome the repellence. Adding clay-rich soil provides a long-term solution to soil water repellence, and increases soil water holding capacity, reduces wind erosion risk, and may reduce frost risk.

Claying is best suited to medium to high rainfall environments in Western Australia, with higher crop and pasture yield potential.

Minimum Standards Of Maturity For Table Grapes 2024-2025, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Viticulture research reports

The table shows the approved minimum standard of maturity for each of the standard varieties listed when tested using the approved method. The approved method for testing these varieties is to test the brix (sugar level) of the fruit using a refractometer

What Is The Best Fit For Electric Weed Control In Australia?, Miranda J. Slaven, Catherine Borger

Experimental Summaries - Plant Research

Electric weed control is a non-chemical weed management alternative that will apply to a range of agricultural systems. The current project assessed electric weed control via the continuous electrode-plant contact method (using a Zasso™ XPower).

A wide range of field trials in 2022 and 2023 investigated weed control efficiency, suitability of electric weed control for fence line control of glyphosate-resistant annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum Gaud.), use for crop topping, fire risk, damage to the soil biota, or use for inter-row weed control in vineyards or lupin crops. Broadleaf weeds were controlled more effectively than grass weeds with electric weed …

Pastoral Grasses And Legumes As Potential Host Plants For Fall Armyworm Spodoptera Frugiperda (J.E. Smith) Development, Saleh Adnan, Holly Cattermole, Kim Saligari, Helen Spafford

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

The fall armyworm, Spodopterafrugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a highly polyphagous, migratory pest native to the tropical and subtropical region of Americas. Grass crops particularly corn have been most heavily impacted since S. frugiperda invaded Australia in 2020. In northern Western Australia, S. frugiperda is primarily a problem in dry season (May to October) crops when there are abundant host plants available in monocultures. During the wet season (November to April) it is not known what host plants may support larval growth and development. Accordingly, this present study undertook a no-choice feeding bioassay to assess larval and pupal …

Rotary Spading To Ameliorate Soil Water Repellence, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

One-off deep cultivation can reduce the severity of soil water repellence by mixing some of the repellent topsoil into the wettable subsoil and bringing wettable subsoil to the surface.

Rotary spading or deep cultivation increases water infiltration by providing pathways for water entry; diluting the water repellent soil with non-repellent soil; increasing the breakdown of soil organic matter causing water repellence; in some soil types, spading and other deep cultivation can lift subsoil with higher clay content to the surface.

Deep cultivation increases the risk of wind and water erosion. To minimise the risk of erosion, follow the guidelines on …

Oats – Essentials For Growing A Successful Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Oats in Western Australia are grown for grain, hay, grazing, or silage. Each year, between 250,000 and 350,000 hectares are sown for grain production. This page provides essential management practices for growing a successful oat crop.

Hay – Essentials For Growing A Successful Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Export hay fits into most of the accepted cropping rotations and helps reduce weed seed banks, overcome herbicide resistance, provides a break from traditional chemical regimes and good paddock preparation for the subsequent crop, and is an alternative profitable crop.

Talk to your local hay exporter about their requirements for hay produced for export before sowing oats for export hay. Hay exporters have different requirements, which will affect how you manage your crop.

Developing A Controlled Traffic (Tramline) Farming System, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a farming system built on permanent wheel tracks where the crop zone and traffic lanes are permanently separated. It can improve profitability and sustainability.

Implements for seeding, spraying, spreading and harvesting have a particular span, or multiple of it, and all wheel tracks are confined to specific traffic lanes.

CTF increases profit by more yield, better grain quality, improved operation timeliness, and reduced costs. The environment can improve, with less nutrient leaching, less water erosion, better water infiltration, and less greenhouse gas emission. Implementation needs a clear, long-term plan, and prioritisation of soil health.

Another …

Key Stages In The Growth And Maturity Of Field Pea, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Many farm operations rely on a clear understanding of the stage of crop development. This factsheet describes key growth stages of field pea, which will aid growers and their advisers in determining the appropriate timing for the application of herbicides, crop-topping, swathing, and harvest.

There is likely to be considerable variability in a crop, particularly at maturity and harvest. Therefore, it is often necessary to estimate the average or majority development stage of a crop. At first, this is best done numerically, but with experience it can be done by eye.

Button Grass And Its Management, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Button grass (Dactyloctenium radulans) is a native species found throughout Australia. It is a common summer weed species that depletes soil moisture and nutrients, reducing the yield potential of the subsequent crop. It also acts as a green bridge for crop pests and disease.

The rapid emergence and growth of button grass after rainfall makes it important for the Australian plague locust.

It can be a valuable pasture species in arid areas, although overgrazing of button grass can result in toxicity for sheep and cattle.

Agronomic Practices To Enhance Weed Management, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Some agronomic practices, such as crop choice and sequence and improving crop competition and pasture competition, can improve crop environment and growth, and the crop's ability to compete with weeds.

Soil Inversion To Ameliorate Soil Water Repellence, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

One-off soil inversion results in the burial of the water repellent topsoil in a layer that is typically a depth of 15 to 35 cm and brings to the surface a layer of wettable subsoil.

Other benefits include burial of herbicide resistant weed seeds, removal of compaction, improved access to nutrients, reduced disease risk, and incorporation of soil amendments such as lime.

Soil inversion should always be done when the soil is wet to more than the depth of inversion, and a crop or cover can be sown to reduce the risk of wind erosion.

Caution - Deep cultivation can …

Wheat Response To Foliar-Applied Phosphorus Is Determined By Soil Phosphorus Buffering, Raj Malik, Craig Scanlan, Andrew Van Burgel, Balwinder Singh

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

In no-till cropping systems, banding of phosphorus (P) fertiliser at seeding results in low use efficiency due to chemical reactions in soil. Foliar P has the potential to allow grain producers to respond tactically with P application after sowing when P supply from soil and fertiliser is not meeting crop demand. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of foliar P on wheat grain yield, grain quality, biomass yield, P uptake and P use efficiency indices. Nine field experiments were conducted to investigate the response of wheat to foliar P. Three rates of P, 0, 2.5 and …

Editorial: Recent Advances In Research And Development For Vegetable Crops Under Protected Cultivation, Giao N. Nguyen, Zora Singh

Horticulture Research Articles

Protected cultivation is the production of horticultural crops including vegetables under structures such as forced-ventilated greenhouses, shade net houses, poly houses, net houses, high and low plastic tunnels, where the external growing environment can be controlled or modified to suit crop growth requirements. In regions where the environmental conditions such as weather, soil and water are not suitable to grow specific vegetables, or in urban areas with limited arable land, this farming system is very important to ensure high, stable productivity and good quality vegetables. This enables a stable supply for the market all year round, bringing high economic return …

Lure Specificity, Phenology, And Damage Caused By Epiphyas Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) In Western Australian Apple Orchards, Maryam Yazdani, Elliot T. Howse, Wee Tek Tay, Helen Spafford, Rieks Van Klinken

Horticulture Research Articles

Multiple Epiphyas species inhabit southwestern Western Australia, including Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) Epiphyas postvittana (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a globally significant, polyphagous pest. This study evaluated the efficacy and specificity of lures designed for 3 Epiphyas species: E. postvittana, Epiphyas pulla (Turner), and the undescribed Epiphyas sp. (1) (Common). Additionally, the study sought to determine the presence and distribution of Epiphyas species in 3 significant apple-growing localities. Trapping, together with partial sequencing of the mitochondrial COI gene, found LBAM to be restricted to the Perth Hills and E. pulla, to apple orchards near Manjimup and Pemberton. This geographic …

Estimation Of Effective Number Of Breeders And Effective Population Size In An Abundant And Heavily Exploited Marine Teleost, Andrea Bertram, Justin Bell, Chris Brauer, David Fairclough, Paul Hamer, Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo, Maren Wellenreuther, Luciano B. Beheregaray

Fisheries Research Articles

Obtaining reliable estimates of the effective number of breeders (Nb) and generational effective population size (Ne) for fishery-important species is challenging because they are often iteroparous and highly abundant, which can lead to bias and imprecision. However, recent advances in understanding of these parameters, as well as the development of bias correction methods, have improved the capacity to generate reliable estimates. We utilized samples of both single-cohort young of the year and mixed-age adults from two geographically and genetically isolated stocks of the Australasian snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) to investigate the feasibility of generating reliable Nb and Ne estimates for a …

Can The Necrophagous Blow Fly Calliphora Vicina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Be Reared On Plant-Based Meal?, David F. Cook, Muhammad Shoaib Tufail, Sasha C. Voss

Horticulture Research Articles

The use of the blow fly Calliphora vicina as a potential pollination species to augment the current reliance on honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Australian horticulture requires knowledge of how best to mass-rear this fly species. Calliphora vicina lays eggs onto carrion soon after death, and the resultant larvae that hatch are necrophagous and feed on the decomposing tissues of the dead animal. Newly hatched larvae of this fly were provided with plant-based meals (soya bean and canola) and compared with larvae provided with livestock-derived meatmeal to determine if plant-based meal could be used to mass-rear this blow fly species. Both …

Transcriptome-Wide Genetic Variations In The Legume Genus Leucaena For Fingerprinting And Breeding, Yong Han, Alexander Abair, Julian Van Der Zanden, Madhugiri Nageswara-Rao, Saipriyaa Purushotham Vasan, Roopali Bhoite, Marieclaire Castello, Donovan Bailey, Clinton K. Revell Dr, Chengdao Li, Daniel Real

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

Leucaena is a versatile legume shrub/tree used as tropical livestock forage and in timber industries, but it is considered a high environmental weed risk due to its prolific seed production and broad environmental adaptation. Interspecific crossings between Leucaena species have been used to create non-flowering or sterile triploids that can display reduced weediness and other desirable traits for broad use in forest and agricultural settings. However, assessing the success of the hybridisation process before evaluating the sterility of putative hybrids in the target environment is advisable. Here, RNA sequencing was used to develop breeding markers for hybrid parental identification in …

Finding The Safe Planting Window For Blackspot, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

The Blackspot Manager disease risk forecaster model is an effective tool to help identify the best balance between early sowing and potential yield loss from blackspot. Blackspot can lead to significant crop losses. Field peas become infected when windborne spores are released from fruiting bodies on infected stubble. The timing of spore release is generally early in autumn, depending on summer and autumn rain events.

Barley Grass And Its Management In Crops, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Barley grass is a common name for Hordeum glaucum and H. leporinum. Barley grass is a major crop weeds species because the seed is readily dispersed, it is renowned for rapidly germinating in autumn, and post-emergent herbicide control options are limited. It can also act as an alternate host for cereal diseases and can develop resistance to herbicides.

The rapid germination of the species after rainfall gives barley grass the potential to act as a green bridge for cereal root rot diseases

Management Options For A Frosted Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

There are numerous options for managing crops that have been frosted. The following table highlights these options and the pros and cons of each. The suitability of each option depends on the severity of the frost, what can be done at the cheapest cost and give best return on investment, and maximising weed control.

Leaf Rust And Stripe Rust And Their Management In Wheat, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) can be a significant threat to wheat crops in Western Australia in some seasons. Learn the symptoms and risk factors.

Managing Crop Weeds, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

In-crop weed competition causes losses costing around $1 billion per annum for Western Australia. There are effective strategic and tactical options available to manage weed competition that will increase crop yields and profitability.

Weeds with herbicide resistance are an increasing problem in grain cropping enterprises. Integrated weed management (IWM) is a system for managing weeds over the long term and is particularly useful for managing and minimising herbicide resistance.

Growers are advised to adopt integrated weed management (IWM) to reduce the damage caused by herbicide-resistant weeds.

Herbicide resistant weed populations are found throughout all cropping areas of Western Australia. The …

Chickpeas In The Ord River Irrigation Area (Oria), Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Kabuli chickpeas are a high value industry in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA). Largeseeded, high-quality grain is grown for domestic and export markets.

The Ord River District Co-operative Ltd markets locally grown Kabuli chickpeas. It mainly supplies domestic markets in Australian capital cities where chickpeas are sold as whole seed in specialty shops.

Information on the areas grown, yields and other details could not be obtained from the cooperative as they are regarded as commercial in-confidence. Chickpeas are also sold in larger volumes to Australian manufacturers to make falafel, hummus and other dips. The processing market requires varieties with …

Wild Oat And Its Management In Crops, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Wild oats (Avena fatua and A. ludoviciana) represent a large cost to cropping; they are highly competitive and when left uncontrolled, can reduce wheat yields by up to 80%.

The greatest yield loss occurs when wild oat plants emerge at the same time as the crop.

Managing Flystrike In Sheep, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Animal production and livestock factsheets

Flystrike is a significant health and welfare risk to Australian sheep and costs $280 million annually. Flystrike should be actively monitored and managed to prevent productivity losses and ensure good animal welfare.

Harvesting, Packing And Storing Bananas In The Oria (Ord River Irrigation Area), Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Horticulture factsheets

For bananas on the Ord River Irrigation Area, length of time to emergence and harvesting depend on air temperature, planting time and sucker management. Ratoon crops are much slower to reach maturity than new crops.

Brome Grass And Its Management In Crops, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Brome grass (Bromus spp.) is one of the most competitive grass weeds in wheat. Over the last 10 years, brome grass has increased in importance to a greater extent than any other weed species in Australia.

Recent changes in crop production systems, increased conservation tillage, a lack of available selective herbicides, and a decline in system diversity have seen an increase in the importance of this weed in Western Australia (WA).

Seed is the main source of brome grass infestation and, as few seeds remain dormant, the most important aspect of management is to reduce its seed bank.

Annual Ryegrass And Its Management In Crops, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) is one of the most serious and costly weeds of annual winter cropping systems in southern Australia. It is highly competitive and can compete with a crop as early as the 2-leaf stage.

Annual ryegrass is a winter to spring growing weed that can emerge from late autumn to early spring. The number of emergence flushes and the density of plants that emerge are related to initial seedbank levels and the frequency and amount of rainfall.