Investment

Super high oleic safflower (SHOS) is proposed as high value cash crop and valuable break crop for cereal dominant systems and potential profitable option for low to mid rainfall regions in systems where canola is unsuitable. The target area, rainfall zone and farming systems fit is being refined with each passing season - with the current target the MRZ (see Figure below). Interest in the commercial production of safflower is increasing across the northern, southern and western grains regions due to its reputed adaptability to problem soils in particular sodic soils. However, knowledge of SHO Safflower agronomy remains a barrier to adoption due to limited extension and a lack of grower confidence. This is a major limitation to the development of the industry.

Current trials of SHOS in Western Australia have focused on variety evaluation, time of sowing and herbicide safety, but there has been no significant investment in nutrition and limited investment in depth of sowing validation in WA soils.

With regard to nutrition, current information that has been communicated by Go Resources to growers indicates that safflower removes 25 kg of N, 4.3 kg of P and 4 kg of S per tonne of grain and recommends a fertiliser program similar to wheat. However, validation research is required to ensure that growers are optimising their investment in fertiliser (specifically nitrogen) to ensure profitable application of fertiliser using the 4R's principles to ensure that the nitrogen required by the plant is being met.

Depth of sowing recommendations for safflower range from 2cm up to 7cm providing soil surface crusting is not an issue. A better understanding of implications of sowing depth will assist growers in assessing whether or not moisture lower in the soil profile can be chased at seeding time.

This investment will also undertake soil characterisation to enable the calculation of water use efficiency of safflower, and impact of safflower on soil pathogens at each trial site.