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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Effective use of lower mill mud rates in the nutrition program
(2014) Fox, J
In 2011 Mackay Sugar changed its mud truck fleet to enable low rates of banded mill mud and mud/ash application on farm. The aim of this was to: make mill by-products available to more growers, lessen the impact of Reef Regulations by introducing an applicator capable of applying mud at rates < 100 t/ha and increase the distance mud is transported away from the mill. MT Catherine Cooperative (a farmer group in the Wagoora district of Mackay Sugar) set about answering some of the agronomic unknowns associated with this new practice. Replicated trials (fallow plant and first ratoon) were established in 2011 to determine if one application per crop cycle of mill mud banded on the row: would provide enough phosphorus for the crop cycle, needed to be incorporated to ensure early phosphorus access by plant cane and could improve runoff water quality in ratoons relative to traditional application.
Final report SRDC Project CG013 Growers working together to improve water quality in the Herbert Sugar Industry
(2008) Wood, A; Wrigley, T; Phillips, K; Sheedy, P
The sugarcane area of the Herbert River district is located adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The quality of water entering the GBR lagoon from the Herbert district is one of the most important environmental issues facing the Herbert sugar industry. However, little data on water quality are available from catchments consisting entirely of sugarcane. This project was conducted to establish a number of water quality monitoring sites in relatively small catchments where the land use is solely sugarcane and where individual growers or groups of growers could measure the quality of water in farm drains using simple tools and relate it to their farming practices. Eleven growers volunteered to participate in the programme. They were keen to participate because they felt that sugarcane growers’ reputation of being good custodians of the land had been tarnished by various external studies of water quality and they were eager to demonstrate that their activities were not polluting drainage water. A series of suitable sites for taking and testing water samples were established and V notch weirs were inserted in the drains for the purpose of measuring rates of water flow. A series of simple tools were developed for measuring sediment and nutrients drainage water leaving the farms. An experienced water engineer who had worked in the district for many years agreed to coordinate the project and proceeded to train the growers involved. He also set up and equipped a water analysis laboratory so that the measurements taken by the growers could be validated. Occasional samples were also sent to a NATA accredited laboratory for further validation of the nutrient determinations but also for measurements of pesticide residues. The growers involved in the project have recorded water quality measurements for three years and have also maintained records of on-farm practices that may impact on water quality such as tillage, fertilising, land levelling and herbicide applications and other activities that may impact on water quality. The growers were provided with information on desirable water quality levels. If their measurements exceeded these levels, growers reacted quickly to seek possible explanations for the elevated readings. The project was evaluated at the commencement, mid-term and just before its conclusion. The growers involved developed a list of the critical factors that needed to be achieved in order for the project to be successful. The mid-term evaluation was conducted with members of the Project Consultative Group and the final evaluation was again conducted with the growers involved in the project. Feedback was generally positive but there were a few areas where things could have been improved. The project outcomes consisted largely of improved knowledge, particularly amongst the growers, of what simple techniques are available for measuring nutrients, pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity of farm drainage water. Growers learnt what constituted high, medium and low levels for the different water quality parameters and developed a better understanding of the relationship between rainfall and discharge characteristics of drains on their farms. They improved their understanding 4 of the relationship between on-farm management practices and water quality and of the accuracy and reliability of the different tools used to measure water quality. An important outcome has been the continued engagement and support of growers involved with the project, and the engagement and support of regulatory and other government support agencies through the project consultative group. This is important for the next phase of the project which aims to expand from 11 growers to around 100 growers conducting water quality monitoring. The existence of a committed nucleus of growers will be essential for helping to inspire others to participate. Likely economic benefits of the project will be increased farm profitability arising from improved farm practices associated with better management of farm inputs such as fertilisers and herbicides. Reduced input costs arising from reductions in soil tillage and more targeted applications of nutrients and herbicides will also contribute. Environmental benefits will arise from improved water quality on farm and in the downstream ecosystem, and improved soil health arising from changes in farming practices. Social benefits will include the empowerment of growers, who are now armed with better information about their farm practices and the likely impacts on water quality; greater confidence amongst growers when interacting with government and environmental groups; and improved attitudes and engagement by growers in sustainable land management.
A stocktake of the levels and sources of nitrate in groundwaters associated with sugarcane areas
(2000) Thorburn, PJ; Weier, KL; Biggs, JS
Water containing high concentrations of nitrate is unfit for human consumption and, if discharging to freshwater or marine habitats, can contribute to algal blooms and eutrophication. Previous studies have found elevated nitrate concentrations in groundwaters underlying sugar-growing areas, particularly the Bundaberg and Burdekin areas, and that in Bundaberg the problem was escalating. Nitrate pollution of groundwaters of the sugar industry is of particular concern because of the proximity of the industry to environmentally sensitive areas and the large number of people (in cities and rural areas) relying on groundwaters for drinking water. However, apart from recent studies in Bundaberg, data on nitrate in groundwater has generally come from inconsistent studies. These studies examining either a limited number of groundwater bores, or large databases of groundwater chemistry where sampling and analytical methods have been variable and, in some cases, inappropriate. So a reliable, consistent, industry-wide definition of the problem does not exist. This project determined the extent of nitrate contamination in groundwater underneath sugargrowing regions of eastern Australia, and examined the likely source of the nitrate. In bores where nitrate concentrations were elevated, and therefore likely to be a result of human activities, concentrations were monitored to provide an assessment of trends in nitrate concentrations. This information was used to promote “best management practices” through relevant extension, industry and regulatory groups, to restrict leaching of nitrate to groundwater.
SRDC Research Project final report Development of a constructed wetland for improving water quality in sugarcane drainage, and ensuring its community acceptance and industry adoption
(2007) Melville, M; Quirk, R; White, I; Kinsela, A
Canefield drainage water quality is an increasingly important issue for the industry and community because of the potential downstream environmental impacts of contained contaminants. The community is increasingly environmentally conscious, and many perceive agriculture as the main threat to environmental sustainability. Hence, regulators are tightening controls on polluted drainage from agricultural industries. As in other parts of the World, this trend will continue in Australia and agriculture is likely to be required to meet the same standards as other industries. The sugar industry must therefore develop and implement best management to address the issue, and better demonstrate and communicate their environmental stewardship. The means by which the NSW Sugar Industry faced and achieved a win-win outcome with respect to problems with their acid sulfate soil management is discussed in detail by White et al. (2007). This provides a model for managing drainage water contaminanation. PhD research by Green (2005) tested a number of techniques for ameliorating acidy in drainage from Robert Quirk’s 100 ha cane farm on the Tweed River. This research showed that most (>70 %) of the acidity in the farm’s drain water was in the form of the dissolved metal ions, particularly of iron and aluminium. Many mine sites also have this problem and a commonly used management tool is a constructed and vegetated wetland. Therefore the SRDC-funded project UNW003 constructed an approximately 1.5 ha wetland adjacent to the farm’s outflow drain. Natural recruitment, predominantly of Couch grass and Spike rush, established dense vegetation in the wetland. During rain-driven acid discharge events, water from this drain (about 10 % of the discharge) was pumped into the first of six terraced wetland bays and from there it flowed down to outflow into the discharge drain. During 3 years of operation, water quality was measured at the input, throughout, and output of the wetland.
Adopting systems approaches to water and nutrient management for future cane production in the Burdekin SRDC Research Project CSE020 final report
(2008) Thorburn, P
There is concern about environmental impacts of cropping in catchments of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, especially losses of nitrogen (N) and herbicides from cropping systems. Sugarcane production in the Burdekin region in the dry tropics stands out from other crops/regions because, (1) it is fully irrigated, which may enhance the losses of any chemicals from farms, and (2) it has the highest N fertiliser application rates of any sugarcane producing region in Australia. There are few measurements of N and/or herbicide losses from sugarcane production, especially fully irrigated production. More complete information is needed to evaluate, develop and underpin the adoption of management practices to reduce environmental impacts of sugarcane production. Four streams of work were undertaken to provide this information: Monitoring water quality leaving sugarcane farms. Demonstrating water quality and productivity benefits of farm management practices. Harnessing the information from these two components to describe and classify management practice systems typical of past, current and future ‘best practice’, and estimate the water quality, productivity and economic benefits of these systems. Communicating results of these activities widely within and beyond the region. Water, N and herbicide losses were measured at three sites in different parts of the Burdekin region, covering a range of soil types and irrigation managements. The experimental data were then used to parameterise the APSIM-Sugarcane cropping systems model, and then used to infill missing data and develop complete water and N balances for each of the three crops measured at the sites. N losses in runoff were relatively small, being less than 10 kg N ha-1 crop-1. Herbicide losses were similar to those measured previously. More N was lost via deep drainage than runoff at all sites, even those with slowly permeable soils. The results were consistent with the known ground water nitrate contamination issues in the region.
Sugar Research and Development Corporation final report Project CTA013 Spatial analysis of the impact of land use on nutrient loads within the Herbert River Catchment
(1998) Johnson, A; Walker, D; Wood, A
This Project arose out of concerns for the apparent increase in nutrient and sediment contaminant loads in Queensland coastal waters since European settlement (e.g. DEAP Report, 1992). At the time of Project inception, the origins of this increase had yet to be defined and quantified, however, the sugarcane industry was considered to be a likely contributor because of the large (and increasing) areas of sugarcane involved and the relatively high fertiliser inputs per unit area. There was, therefore, a need to develop practical tools to integrate existing information and spatially model, at the catchment scale, nutrient and sediment losses from agricultural land. It was the Project teams’ intention to provide tools to analyse important issues/questions relating to the sustainable management of existing and potential sugarcane lands of the Herbert River catchment. In response, four core areas of R&D were undertaken. These were: 1. Data collection and integration; 2. Spatial analysis of the impacts of land use and management practices on water quality; 3. Tools for decision support; and 4. Building stakeholder capacity.
SRDC Research Project final report Irrigation runoff event monitoring
(2006) Hesp, C
A major concern of the Burdekin irrigated sugarcane growing industry is the impact of nutrient runoff on the waterways and the surrounding environment. In line with the current Commonwealth and State Government’s Reef Water Quality Plan and the NRM regional plans, growers expressed the desire to evaluate the current situation to be able to address these concerns. This project was designed to enable growers to monitor runoff from their paddocks when irrigating and to assess the resulting. A trailer was designed and fitted with a solar power ISCO Avalanche refrigerated pumping sampler. It was designed to be a mobile unit that could easily be moved to any site within the MAFIA grower group area. The intention has been to make this unit available to any other grower group within the Burdekin area. During this project a number of training days were held and information disseminated to other grower groups through presentations at regional field days and workshops. Event sampling was carried out by growers in the MAFIA group which they then paid to have tested for nitrate concentrations. This information allowed growers to assess nitrate concentrations in runoff from irrigation of plant cane and discussions about the results were carried out with the members. Although a good wet season this year has limited the number of irrigation events available to monitoring. Great interest was expressed in further use of the sampling trailer to compare different fertiliser application methods and bedding practices to evaluate best management practices. The fact that the MAFIA group paid to have a consultant test the water samples shows their commitment to the success of the project and ongoing use of the water sampling trailer. A baseline survey was carried out at the start of the project and a follow up survey was done at the end of the project. Even with the weather constraints this year there has been an indication from these surveys that over 50% of growers in the group have made recent changes to their irrigation practices as a result of this project. It has provided the MAFIA members with degree of ownership of their runoff issues. This has highlight to an already aware group the extent of runoff and possible future investigations in improvement of irrigation practices. There has been a perceivable increase in the confidence of growers in the group about the validity of the sample data collated as it directly relevant to them.
SRDC Reseach Project final report Building grower capacity to understand and better manage groundwater
(2009) Mio, E; Green, A; Jordan, R; Attard, S; Savorgnan, T
The Upper Haughton Water Balance Study - Building grower capacity to understand and better manage groundwater commenced in July 2006 after growers expressed concerns at the rising groundwater table in the Burdekin River Irrigation Area (BRIA) and in particular the Upper Haughton sugar growing area (Figure 1). Several cane farmers approached BBIFMAC to develop a grower driven project to look at identifying and quantifying the groundwater rise in the area in order to raise awareness within the farming community of this issue. The lower Burdekin region is part of the dry tropics, characterised by a short intense wet season usually occurring from January to March, where two-thirds of its annual rainfall occurs (Petheram et al., 2006). The average annual rainfall for Ayr is approximately 1000mm but is highly variable, ranging from 100mm to nearly 2000mm. In recent years annual rainfall has exceeded the long term average for the area, with 1055mm in 2007, 1280mm in 2008 and 1653mm to October 2009. Almost all of the rain in 2009 fell from January to April with the remainder of the year being very dry. 2009 is currently the second wettest year on record for Ayr. The above average rainfall over the past 3 years has had a major influence on rising groundwater in the BRIA. Previous studies have shown that groundwater levels have remained relatively constant in the BRIA during dry years (since the area was opened to intensive irrigation in 1988), however in wetter than average years, groundwater levels have increased significantly (Petheram et al., 2006). Prior to intensive irrigation in the BRIA, groundwater levels would drop during dry years and rise in wet years. This indicates there has been a change in groundwater behaviour since excess water has been introduced to the system through farm irrigation and SunWater supply channels. From looking at DERM records for various bores across the BRIA, this theory is supported, with most bores showing an upward trend since the area was opened to intensive irrigation in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (PPK, 2001). Results from the UHWB study have shown groundwater levels rising quickly and consistently, averaging 0.36m per year for the past two years. In some areas groundwater came to within 0.5m of the surface during the 2009 wet season. This poses numerous issues for landholders in this area, including lost production from water logging and the possibility of secondary salinisation in areas of poor water quality. This is currently only occurring in relatively small patches but if the rising trend is allowed to continue across the region, it could affect a much greater area and put the entire industry at risk, costing industry and landholders many millions of dollars and creating huge socio-economic problems.
SRDC Grower Group innovation project final report Developing a sediment trapping system in the Silkwood drainage board area (SDBA)
(2008) Brooks, I
The Silkwood Drainage Board Area (SDBA) encompasses a catchment area of approximately 1200 hectares using a system of drains which are both man made and redesigned natural streams. There are roughly 16 kilometres of drainage system. In the North Queensland Wet Tropics it is essential to have an efficient and effective drainage system to allow sugar cane or any other crop to be free of water logging and excessive flooding. The SDBA is an ideal demonstration area because most of the farm runoff is contained within the drainage scheme. This allows for the collecting of data to evaluate the effectiveness of different drainage models. By incorporating a system of sediment trapping into the farm layout, off farm sediment losses can be reduced. Soil erosion by water has been identified as a research priority especially for the farms within the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Area. Environmental factors such as slope, rainfall intensity, soil structure and soil cover are interacting factors producing sediment runoff. Farmers can manage soil structure and soil cover in ratoon cane through green cane thrash blanket and minimum tillage systems but currently the plant cane farming systems still entails the intense cultivation of ground. There are combinations of factors restricting change on the ground to a total minimum tillage planting system. Factors such as; the high cost to change equipment, the necessity to carry out earth works on particular paddocks such as levelling and drainage works and the changing over of row widths and wheel centre spacings to the new dual row system. These all require complete cultivation of the paddock. Other environmental factors such as slope and rainfall also have an effect on sediment runoff. Therefore farm management needs to consider how it can offset the effects from these factors. Sediment trapping systems should be considered as an effective solution in a farm management program to mitigate the effects of paddock cultivation, high rainfall and slope erosion.
Progress report on BSES and WRC studies of water quality in Woongarra-Pemberton area - July 1981
(1981)
This report summarizes results of a pot trial comparing bore and surface water; co-operative monitoring of water-table levels with the Water Resources Commission; field trials with various ameliorants; and a field survey of yields and various management factors in the problem area and other neighbouring areas.

Soil health and nutrient management

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