This GRDC investment Optimising Irrigated Grains (OIG) (FAR1906-003RTX) was set up to identify gaps in our knowledge regarding the true economically attainable yield potential of winter and summer crops (grain maize, durum, canola, chickpeas, faba beans and barley) grown in south-eastern Australian irrigated farming systems. The focus was on crops where there was less knowledge of upper end yield potential, particularly in light of newer germplasm, management advances and innovations in soil amelioration, as well as evaluating crop suitability for specific irrigated regions.

The guidelines and results set out in this booklet are the result of research taking place across three seasons (2020 – 2022) with mostly la Nina weather patterns. As a result, the cropping years of the project were subject to cooler more mild spring temperatures, ideally geared for the project team to explore the upper range of yield potential for the crops tested. Although spring temperatures were mild, rainfall patterns across the three seasons were very different, with as much rainfall in October 2022 as what fell in the whole growing season of 2020 at the Finley site: Kerang also experiencing a growing season rainfall (GSR) of decile 2, 6 and 10 over the three years of the project. In many ways, the weather patterns in 2022 did not allow the evaluation of irrigated crops since after initial early spring applications no further irrigation was required.

Click on the READ MORE tab below to download a copy of the OIG guidelines booklet.