Wade Bidstrup applied GPS levelling, deep ripping, and manure top-dressing across 3,000 hectares to fix drainage and boost yields. Barley jumped 15-20% where he doubled manure rates. On-farm trials showed mung beans and chickpeas both gained significantly at 25 cm row spacing.
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Darling Downs grain grower Wade Bidstrup is enjoying increased yields after taking advantage of a paddock levelling operation to boost soil nutrients at depth with manure and deep ripping. The Bidstrops have been using GPS to level the cropping areas of their 3,000 hectares at Warra in a bid to improve paddock drainage and reduce the risk of waterlogging.
We've had a big land levelling operation.
Going for the last few years and.
So when you do that, you've got.
To tear the country up to level it, which gives us a great opportunity.
To put manure on. So we level it and then put the manure on and give it a real deep ripping.
So that's been a good chance to try and get some nutrients down deep.
And we put a heavy raid on. Been putting a heavy raid on after finish levelling.
So hopefully that'll keep us going for a few years with the deeper nutrients.
The bid strips are zero till, but use manure to top dress the surface. With the whole farm getting a tonne to an acre of manure each year.
Have seen some good yield results, especially on this paddock of barley we harvested this year.
It was just a straight line on the yield map. With double the rate of manure.
We saw some good yield results there. Probably an extra, I'd say 15, 20% yield increase.
Yeah, 1.8, 1.9 tonnes the acre, the barley where the manure rate was doubled.
Up, as opposed to 1.6 or something like that where it wasn't.
Mr. Bidstrup is a big believer in using the latest research data to improve performance and profitability on his farm. Hosting several crop and breeding trials sponsored by the Grains Research and Development Corporation in collaboration with the University of Queensland's alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation and Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. A series of row spacing trials on his block reveal that mung beans and chickpeas perform best at 25 cm row spacings with 2014-15 Jade Au Mung beans yielding half a tonne to the hectare, more at 25 cm than at 1 metre rows. While chickpeas were almost 1 tonth, the hectare better off at 25 cm than at 100 cm when averaged across three different varieties.
The trials definitely have led to adoption of new techniques. So we were always narrow rows, but it sort of, I guess it clarify the position where we narrow rows were best.
But we've increased our planting rate for.
Mung beans, kept our plant rate for chickpeas at the levels we were at.
I think the research showed that chickpea.
Plant population doesn't make a huge amount of difference. The raised spacing does.
While this focus on soil improvement has been successful for his family, Mr. Bidstrup says every farm is different and advocates producers engaging with the science.
Look at the research and do the sums for yourself and if it stacks up, do it. I think yield's king. You just have to.
The research is out there. You just gotta look at it and.
Make your own decisions on it.
I guess every farm's different, but it works for us.
