Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), caused by the necrotroph Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib. (de Bary), is ... more Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), caused by the necrotroph Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib. (de Bary), is a major disease of canola in Australia, greatly reducing yields in high infection years. This study investigated genotype by environment by management interactions at 25 sites across the south-west Australian grainbelt from 2017 to 2020. Up to 10 canola varieties were grown each year with +/− fungicide application at 30% flowering. Disease incidence was low, with less than 20% infection recorded across most sites. Most variation in yield occurred between sites, rather than by management or variety, due to the environmental differences between the sites. Petal assays were found to be a poor indicator of later disease severity, suggesting the winter growing season in south-west Australia does not have reliable conducive conditions for disease development following petal drop in canola. The Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction model (AMMI) indicated that the open-pollinated ...
Over 27,000 exotic plant species have been introduced to Australia, predominantly for use in gard... more Over 27,000 exotic plant species have been introduced to Australia, predominantly for use in gardening, agriculture and forestry. Less than 1% of such introductions have been solely accidental. Plant introductions also occur within Australia, as exotic and native species are moved across the country. Plant-based industries contribute around $50 billion to Australia’s economy each year, play a signifi cant social role and can also provide environmental benefi ts such as mitigating dryland salinity. However, one of the downsides of a new plant introduction is the potential to become a new weed. Overall, 10% of exotic plant species introduced since European settlement have naturalised, but this rate is higher for agricultural and forestry plants. Exotic plant species have become agricultural, noxious and natural ecosystem weeds at rates of 4%, 1% and 7% respectively. Whilst garden plants have the lowest probability of becoming weeds this is more than compensated by their vast numbers o...
espanolEste estudio evalua, mediante un analisis eco-geografico, los recursos geneticos actuales ... more espanolEste estudio evalua, mediante un analisis eco-geografico, los recursos geneticos actuales de Dorycnium de Australia y Nueva Zelanda y los factores ecologicos que afectarian su adaptacion al sur de Australia, cuyos centros de recursos geneticos solo conservan 58 accesiones no duplicadas de 4 especies de Dorycnium por falta de recoleccion sistematica de diversidad para el fitomejoramiento. Se cotejaron colecciones de plasma germinal de sitios y herbarios. Hay pocos datos de pasaporte de entradas de Dorycnium en bancos de genes, y escasa informacion ecologica descriptiva de suelo y clima de sitios en los herbarios. Se compararon los climas de la distribucion nativa de especies de Dorycnium en Australia usando el modelo CLIMEX y los datos de aridez espacial, revelandose que Dorycnium rectum y D. hirsutum provenian de regiones climaticas similares a los pastizales templados de Australia meridional. Tambien se correlacionaba cierto plasma germinal de D. pentaphyllum, no asi D. grae...
The legume field pea can be a valuable component of crop rotations to reduce cereal disease carry... more The legume field pea can be a valuable component of crop rotations to reduce cereal disease carryover and increase soil nitrogen. However, it is frequently affected by Ascochyta blight which reduces yield. Fungicides are used to control the impact of the disease with mixed success, but effective management relies on a combination of strategies. To determine the efficacy of management strategies for disease suppression, field trials were run investigating; The interaction between time-of-sowing and fungicide treatment at three locations in Western Australia in 2016, with four fungicide treatments applied either once or twice after sowing. The impact of using wheat stubble from the preceding crop to trellis the field peas, reducing crop lodging, and potentially disease spread. Results showed that time of sowing had a greater impact on yield than repeated application of fungicide. Stubble-trellising using the previous year’s cereal stubble significantly reduced disease in the crop ...
Distribution and Economic Importance of Perennial Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium Sarita Jane Ben... more Distribution and Economic Importance of Perennial Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium Sarita Jane Bennett Summary . Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium are three genera of the leguminosae that are little known for their economic potential. Each genera contains one or a few species ...
Boron and salinity are both toxic to plant growth in high concentrations and frequently occur tog... more Boron and salinity are both toxic to plant growth in high concentrations and frequently occur together. Field peas are one of the major break crops in Western Australia yet little is known about their tolerance to the combined influences of salinity and boron. A glasshouse study was conducted to determine the influence of salinity (0 and 6 dS/m) and boron (5 and 20 mg/kg) and the combined effects of both on the early growth of two field pea varieties ‘kaspa’, the predominant variety grown in south-east and Western Australia, and an older variety, ‘parafield’. Levels were chosen as the upper levels for cereal production. Salinity was found to be the main inhibitor to plant growth in both ‘Kaspa’ and ‘Parafield’ reducing plant height, root length and the number of nodes on the main stem. No interaction was observed between the combined effects of salinity and boron toxic soils. ‘Kaspa’ was more tolerant of boron toxic soils than ‘Parafield’ with no significant difference between low a...
Current students coming through agricultural faculties in Australian universities have grown up i... more Current students coming through agricultural faculties in Australian universities have grown up in an era of low wool and meat prices, the introduction and acceptance of no-till farming as the norm and a general decrease in mixed farming landscapes in favour of continuous cropping. Since the collapse of the wool reserve price scheme in 1991, wool prices declined and income on wool producing farms followed suit. R & D during this period has also declined from 5-4% agricultural GDP in 1986 to only 3% in 2005 and has favoured research related to cropping rather than that related to pastures and livestock. How then do we convince students that mixed-farming enterprises provide the sustainable future of farming? This paper provides a background to farming practises over the last 20 years, along with the economic, environmental and social basis for the decisions that have been made. In view of a changing climate, peak oil, food security issues and changing trends for global food consumpti...
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 2005, 45, pp. 301329. doi: 10.1071/EA04020 The Ed... more Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 2005, 45, pp. 301329. doi: 10.1071/EA04020 The Editors wish to alert readers to two technical corrections to Appendix 1 (see below). (1) A footnote was incorrectly attributed to Dr Don Loch (Department of Primary Industries and ...
Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), caused by the necrotroph Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib. (de Bary), is ... more Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), caused by the necrotroph Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Lib. (de Bary), is a major disease of canola in Australia, greatly reducing yields in high infection years. This study investigated genotype by environment by management interactions at 25 sites across the south-west Australian grainbelt from 2017 to 2020. Up to 10 canola varieties were grown each year with +/− fungicide application at 30% flowering. Disease incidence was low, with less than 20% infection recorded across most sites. Most variation in yield occurred between sites, rather than by management or variety, due to the environmental differences between the sites. Petal assays were found to be a poor indicator of later disease severity, suggesting the winter growing season in south-west Australia does not have reliable conducive conditions for disease development following petal drop in canola. The Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction model (AMMI) indicated that the open-pollinated ...
Over 27,000 exotic plant species have been introduced to Australia, predominantly for use in gard... more Over 27,000 exotic plant species have been introduced to Australia, predominantly for use in gardening, agriculture and forestry. Less than 1% of such introductions have been solely accidental. Plant introductions also occur within Australia, as exotic and native species are moved across the country. Plant-based industries contribute around $50 billion to Australia’s economy each year, play a signifi cant social role and can also provide environmental benefi ts such as mitigating dryland salinity. However, one of the downsides of a new plant introduction is the potential to become a new weed. Overall, 10% of exotic plant species introduced since European settlement have naturalised, but this rate is higher for agricultural and forestry plants. Exotic plant species have become agricultural, noxious and natural ecosystem weeds at rates of 4%, 1% and 7% respectively. Whilst garden plants have the lowest probability of becoming weeds this is more than compensated by their vast numbers o...
espanolEste estudio evalua, mediante un analisis eco-geografico, los recursos geneticos actuales ... more espanolEste estudio evalua, mediante un analisis eco-geografico, los recursos geneticos actuales de Dorycnium de Australia y Nueva Zelanda y los factores ecologicos que afectarian su adaptacion al sur de Australia, cuyos centros de recursos geneticos solo conservan 58 accesiones no duplicadas de 4 especies de Dorycnium por falta de recoleccion sistematica de diversidad para el fitomejoramiento. Se cotejaron colecciones de plasma germinal de sitios y herbarios. Hay pocos datos de pasaporte de entradas de Dorycnium en bancos de genes, y escasa informacion ecologica descriptiva de suelo y clima de sitios en los herbarios. Se compararon los climas de la distribucion nativa de especies de Dorycnium en Australia usando el modelo CLIMEX y los datos de aridez espacial, revelandose que Dorycnium rectum y D. hirsutum provenian de regiones climaticas similares a los pastizales templados de Australia meridional. Tambien se correlacionaba cierto plasma germinal de D. pentaphyllum, no asi D. grae...
The legume field pea can be a valuable component of crop rotations to reduce cereal disease carry... more The legume field pea can be a valuable component of crop rotations to reduce cereal disease carryover and increase soil nitrogen. However, it is frequently affected by Ascochyta blight which reduces yield. Fungicides are used to control the impact of the disease with mixed success, but effective management relies on a combination of strategies. To determine the efficacy of management strategies for disease suppression, field trials were run investigating; The interaction between time-of-sowing and fungicide treatment at three locations in Western Australia in 2016, with four fungicide treatments applied either once or twice after sowing. The impact of using wheat stubble from the preceding crop to trellis the field peas, reducing crop lodging, and potentially disease spread. Results showed that time of sowing had a greater impact on yield than repeated application of fungicide. Stubble-trellising using the previous year’s cereal stubble significantly reduced disease in the crop ...
Distribution and Economic Importance of Perennial Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium Sarita Jane Ben... more Distribution and Economic Importance of Perennial Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium Sarita Jane Bennett Summary . Astragalus, Lotus and Dorycnium are three genera of the leguminosae that are little known for their economic potential. Each genera contains one or a few species ...
Boron and salinity are both toxic to plant growth in high concentrations and frequently occur tog... more Boron and salinity are both toxic to plant growth in high concentrations and frequently occur together. Field peas are one of the major break crops in Western Australia yet little is known about their tolerance to the combined influences of salinity and boron. A glasshouse study was conducted to determine the influence of salinity (0 and 6 dS/m) and boron (5 and 20 mg/kg) and the combined effects of both on the early growth of two field pea varieties ‘kaspa’, the predominant variety grown in south-east and Western Australia, and an older variety, ‘parafield’. Levels were chosen as the upper levels for cereal production. Salinity was found to be the main inhibitor to plant growth in both ‘Kaspa’ and ‘Parafield’ reducing plant height, root length and the number of nodes on the main stem. No interaction was observed between the combined effects of salinity and boron toxic soils. ‘Kaspa’ was more tolerant of boron toxic soils than ‘Parafield’ with no significant difference between low a...
Current students coming through agricultural faculties in Australian universities have grown up i... more Current students coming through agricultural faculties in Australian universities have grown up in an era of low wool and meat prices, the introduction and acceptance of no-till farming as the norm and a general decrease in mixed farming landscapes in favour of continuous cropping. Since the collapse of the wool reserve price scheme in 1991, wool prices declined and income on wool producing farms followed suit. R & D during this period has also declined from 5-4% agricultural GDP in 1986 to only 3% in 2005 and has favoured research related to cropping rather than that related to pastures and livestock. How then do we convince students that mixed-farming enterprises provide the sustainable future of farming? This paper provides a background to farming practises over the last 20 years, along with the economic, environmental and social basis for the decisions that have been made. In view of a changing climate, peak oil, food security issues and changing trends for global food consumpti...
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 2005, 45, pp. 301329. doi: 10.1071/EA04020 The Ed... more Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 2005, 45, pp. 301329. doi: 10.1071/EA04020 The Editors wish to alert readers to two technical corrections to Appendix 1 (see below). (1) A footnote was incorrectly attributed to Dr Don Loch (Department of Primary Industries and ...
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