Soil health and nutrient management
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://elibrary2.sugarresearch.com.au/handle/11079/13842
Research outcomes: Soil health is improved with a resulting positive impact on the environment and yield growth. Improved reputation and relationship between industry and environmental groups.
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Item Evaluating the potential for improved sugar yields by assessing the climatic and soil constraints to production in southern cane-growing districts(1999) Muchow, RC; Hughes, RM; Horan, HLThis project conducted strategic research to better understand the processes of yield accumulation in low temperature NSW environments and to identify limits to yield. The fundamental knowledge gained in this project can be used to assess yield limitations and the scope for yield improvement. In addition, the findings are a pre-requisite to the design of management and genetic improvement strategies to boost production in southern sugarcane growing environments. An additional spin-off of this project is a better functional basis of the processes of yield accumulation encapsulated in the APSIM Sugarcane systems model to allow extrapolation of the findings more broadly across the sugar industry. An analysis framework was used to express sucrose yield in terms of biomass accumulation and the proportion on biomass present as sucrose. Crop biomass was analysed in terms of radiation capture and utilisation. Partitioning was examined in terms of the proportion of crop biomass present as stalk and the stalk sucrose concentration on a dry matter basis. Crops growing under "potential yield" conditions were analysed and compared to those growing under "commercial yield conditions".Item Evaluating the leaf chlorophyll meter as a tool for nitrogen management in sugarcane(1995) Keating, BA; Smith, KNitrogen is an important constituent of chlorophyll, the compound that gives plants their green colour and the compound that absorbs radiation energy as the basis of plant growth. When nitrogen is in short supply, the chlorophyll content of leaves is reduced and in extreme cases, the leaves take on a yellow (or chlorotic) colour. There is an upper limit to leaf "greenness" and leaf nitrogen can continue to rise even when chlorophyll has reached a "plateau". These simple concepts are illustrated in the figure below. This project was aimed at evaluating a portable leaf chlorophyll meter as a tool in nitrogen management of sugarcane. As chlorophyll is a critical component of the photosynthetic system, reductions in leaf chlorophyll may result in lower sugarcane growth rates and this may impact on final sugar yields. In addition, leaf nitrogen is expensive and time consuming to determine on an extensive basis. The notion was that the chlorophyll meter could provide a far simpler alternative to leaf analysis for the monitoring of nitrogen status of sugarcane crops. The project consisted of measurements of leaf nitrogen and chlorophyll on sugarcane crops grown under a range of nitrogen regimes at locations in the Herbert, Bundaberg and northern NSW regions. Leaves at various levels in the canopy were measured and in the majority of instances samples of the bulk canopy were taken. Samples of the sap from the leaf mid-ribs were collected at the same time and analysed for nitrate using a rapid field test. In all 450 leaf N - chlorophyll meter comparisons were collected at various occasions over the November 1993 to June 1994 period.Item Project No 2025: Final report bench testing of new nitrogen products for potential ammonia volatilisation: when boradcast onto soil or sugarcane trash (N-gold "A", N-gold "B")(1996) Chapman, LS; Haysom, MBC; Makepeace, PN-Gold "A" and N-Gold "B" are granulated products containing urea and calcium oxide with 42.4 and 43.2 % N and 1.5 and 1.3 % Ca respectively. When broadcast onto soil or a green cane trash blanket, ammonia volatilisation losses were not different to those from prilled or granulated urea when tested in the maboratory. These products produced a more alkaline solution than urea and, in theory, this would slightly increase the ammonia volatilisation losses, but this did not happen in this experiment.N-Gold "A" and N-Gold "B", when analysed for N content in 0.5g samples, showed more variation than for the prilled or granulated urea. This variation is unlikely to cause any deleterious effects when used as a fertiliser but could have implications for quality controlItem Comparison of 'into' and 'beside' stool nitrogen placement(1992) Smith, MAThere are now two alternative methods of subsurface nitrogen placement available: beside the stool or into the stool. The second, into the stool treatment, is easier to accomplish. Comparison of cane yields from strips fertilised by the two methods revealed no significant differences.