Better Frost Decisions Issue 6

GRDC Frost study tour through South Eastern Australia

In early September, 14 growers from Western Australia crossed the desert to check out frost management in South Australia and Victoria. The trip took the growers through Adelaide, Clare, Loxton, Birchip, Geelong and Melbourne.

Study tour host, Gary Lang (Wickepin grower and GRDC Western Panel Chair), said that while they didn’t find any magic solutions to frost management, there were some notable differences in management strategies and interesting research that could help frost management in the future.

The new X-ray CT system at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) at the Waite campus, Adelaide, can quickly analyse cereal varieties to understand how frost (and heat and drought) affect grain development This will help researchers choose varieties more likely to cope with different conditions

Growth chambers at Waite. Use to progress crops to the appropriate crop stages when needed for research.

Brenton Leske, DPIRD

Some insights the group gained from the tour were:

- It is important to identify frost-prone areas and treat them differently to other areas of the paddock.

- How ice nucleating bacteria could be making frost damage worse.

- Most farmers the tour visited had very large hay sheds to store hay from frosted crops for feed or sale when the east coast drought.

Although not related to frost, one highlight for the group was the amount of lentils growing between Clare and Ballarat “I have never seen that volume of lentils growing before,” Gary said. Since returning from the tour Gary and some other growers are keen to introduce pulses into their rotation.

Another highlight was the Hyper Yielding Crop site in Victoria “Seeing 7 – 8 t/ha crops was eye opening,” Gary said.

Growers at the hyper yielding site in Victoria.

Brenton Leske, DPIRD

One key difference noted was that eastern growers have the option of cutting frosted crops for hay.

“SA and Vic growers can manage frost by cutting hay and feeding the next mob of droughted cattle elsewhere. It’s part of the business strategy. This is not an option for WA growers as we don’t have the volume of livestock. We have to export anything made into hay and the quality of frosted crops doesn’t allow it to find a home on the export market.”

Options in the west lie more in crop choice. At Gary’s place in Wickepin, delayed sowing was the primary mitigation option for 20 years, but still meant an average 23% frost loss as well as 3040% yield potential loss from delayed sowing Then through the national frost initiative they learned to grow alternative crops. Oats and barley are less susceptible to frost than wheat and a better choice in frost prone areas.

Gary said, “In 2016 we had 7 nights under minus 4°C in September and still managed to make a profit. We had replaced 600ha of frost prone wheat country with 600ha of oats which did well did well that year.”

Where to next?

Gary’s number one choice would be to perfect chilling cabinets so frost research can happen year-round, rather than relying on a few frost events each year. Frost cabinets or chilling cabinets exist but they tend to be small and are not custom built for frost research.

Gary is hoping to entice eastern growers to WA next year to see the frost strategies used in the west (as well as showcasing the nuances in sand we don’t get to appreciate in the east). On top of the educational benefit, tours like this are a great way to meet other growers. All respondents from the post-tour survey noted how valuable the tour was in building connections with other farmers and agricultural research staff. A nice dinner and a cold beer never go down too badly, either

Register your interest for a study tour to WA in 2023 admin@msfp.org.au