Improving farming system profitability, management of greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilience in the low and medium rainfall zones of WA: Grower Perspectives

Key messages

• Growers and industry in low and medium rainfall areas of the WA grainbelt were consulted to provide insight into key decisions around early sowing, system break options and understanding of greenhouse gas emissions on-farm.
• In all regions, soil moisture is a primary driver of seeding decisions. This is balanced against managing the impact of heat and moisture stress in the establishment window and the risk of frost, heat stress and terminal drought during grain fill.
• There was widespread interest in exploring system break options that are profitable and reliable.
• Growers want to understand the assumptions underpinning greenhouse gas emission accounting and the systems in place to measure and reward actions towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
• Feedback from this consultation has been used to guide the focus activities of the Western Australian Farming Systems DPIRD-GRDC 5-year co-investment.

Aims

Grower consultation to identify and confirm research themes aligned to the three core outputs of the WA Farming Systems project. Each form of consultation asked growers to consider their key decisions around early sowing opportunities, system break options in the farming system for increased diversity, profitability and productivity, and their understanding of greenhouse gas emissions in their current farming systems. The highlighted themes, knowledge gaps and research areas of interest identified throughout this process have been used to inform the trial design at three core trial sites and will continue to guide additional activities, development and extension methods throughout the life of the project.

Introduction

Western Australian farming systems have evolved over the last 20 years, with intensified grain production and increasing cereal dominance in the cropping program (Malik et al 2015). Growers have Intensified grain production through continuous adaptation of management practices in response to economic and agronomic risk factors. The adoption of cereal-dominant systems has been largely driven by the reliable, short-term profitability and agronomic convenience.

Growers in the low and medium rainfall zones of Western Australia are concerned about the long-term sustainability and resilience of their cropping systems and are seeking knowledge on how to best manage existing production system risks and prepare for potential future scenarios. This has driven the initiation of a new Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD)/Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) co-investment, the Western Australian Farming systems project. This project will investigate strategies to enhance farm profitability and resilience long-term. The project will research and analyse: 1) system break options that deliver improved profit and acceptable risk, 2) opportunities and risks of changing the timing of seeding and 3) management options for maintaining profitability under low greenhouse gas emissions options.

Consultation with growers in the low and medium rainfall zones has been undertaken to identify key concerns, knowledge gaps and research interests related to the outlined project themes. The insights gained have been used to develop a program of research that is relevant and readily applicable.

Method

A stakeholder engagement process was undertaken between July and September of 2022 across the low and medium rainfall zones of Western Australia to identify and confirm research themes for further investigation in the Western Australian Farming Systems project. Working together with AgInnovate, a consultation process was developed that incorporated four different approaches: face to face workshops, an on-line survey, an ‘ideas capture’ session with a grower network and individual discussions with aligned research groups, growers and agribusiness.

Each approach asked growers and advisors to consider their key decisions around early sowing opportunities; system break options for increased diversity, profitability, and productivity; and investigated understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and current level of activity to address emissions in their current farming system.

Three face-to-face workshops were conducted across the relevant zones, one in the low rainfall zone, hosted in Merredin, and two workshops in the medium rainfall zone, hosted in the north at Geraldton and in the south at Lake Grace. Potential participants included both growers, agribusiness and agronomic consultants and were identified and invited either by phone or email conversation.

The workshops, facilitated and led by AgInnovate, adopted a range of techniques to capture current grower seeding decision practice, including target seeding window and their reasoning behind these decisions for each crop species; their current knowledge about greenhouse gas emissions, and whether they are factored into their on-farm decision making, and the constraints and risks they face with their current rotations.

An online survey approach was then used to capture the feedback from potential participants who were unable to attend face-to-face workshops between August and September. Each survey asked respondents to identify their region, role, farm size and enterprise mix followed by text-answer questions exploring the same themes as the face-to-face workshops.

The DPIRD team was invited to gather feedback from attendees of the final GRDC Grower Network member meeting on 4 August, 2022. Following a presentation detailing the WA Farming Systems project, attendees broke into groups representing high, medium, and low rainfall zones where they undertook a brainstorming activity using GroupMap to identify research priority aligned to following three questions:

1. Seeding opportunities – early sowing – risk or opportunity? What are the research questions you need answering to have confidence to take advantage of March/early April rain events?
2. Break options/diversity in the system – what are the research questions you want answered, what do you need to make them work at your place?
3. Maintaining profitability under low greenhouse gas emissions – what more do you need to know about farming under low greenhouse gas emission scenarios?

Throughout the consultation process, DPIRD staff members attended various events in the focus regions where they either directly approached or were approached by growers and agri-industry professionals regarding the project. The knowledge gained from these conversations was considered in determining the key outcomes of the consultation. About 150 growers provided feedback through these different consultation approaches.

Results

The consultation confirmed that the key project outputs were aligned with the priorities of growers in the low and medium rainfall regions. A large amount of qualitative data was collected to produce high-level themes to underpin future research into improving productivity and sustainability of WA farming systems in these regions whilst maintaining profitability. There were regional differences in core farming system drivers, risks, and management considerations, for example variety choices, weeds, diseases and pests, soil constraints, rotations, and seasonal considerations. However, there were some overarching themes consistent across regions, which will be used to inform future research into Western Australian farming systems.

Key decisions around early sowing opportunities

In all regions, soil moisture is a primary driver of seeding decisions. This is balanced against managing the impact of heat and moisture stress in the establishment window and the risk of frost, heat stress and terminal drought during grain fill. Many seeding decisions are also influenced by logistical considerations such as program size, seeding capacity and target end-date.

Feedback has been used to develop activities within the project including:

• Investigation of time of sowing by species selection to explore very early seeding opportunities
• Using models to analyse historical climate data, coupled with risk of temperature-induced stress for adequate prediction of viable early sowing opportunities
• Modelling to understand the interaction between summer rainfall and soil type to predict requirements for achieving adequate stored soil moisture for optimum establishment conditions.

Additional key research opportunities identified in this area include:

• Investigation into the genetic suitability of varieties to very early sowing opportunities
• Nitrogen application guidelines for a longer growing season
• Sowing techniques for optimal establishment (seeding rate, row spacing, row placement, seed depth)
• Increasing variety robustness and quality to mitigate risk of temperature induced stress.

System break options that deliver improved profit and acceptable risk

Current farming systems across all regions are characterised by cereal dominant rotations, with more diverse rotations on lighter country and few options for diversity on \ heavier country.

Investigation into the optimum rotation for managing break from disease, optimising nitrogen use efficiency through biological nitrogen fixation and carbon sequestration, and improving resilience by creating alternate market options, provides opportunity to create long-term sustainability. Growers across the regions expressed the desire to identify a profitable and reliable legume species, investigate the frequency of inclusion in the rotation, and the optimum sowing window and soil conditions.

Central to the research activities in each region will be the establishment of a system trial.  Treatments have been developed based on the initial consultation and confirmed with local “Regional Innovation Groups.’

This includes treatments that reflect current systems and investigate emerging areas of interest including:

• Current importance of near continuous cereal rotations in certain parts of the farming systems
• Emerging break crop options such as safflower, vetch, mixed-species pasture, and novel pasture legumes
• Creating diversity in the cereal system by exploring the capability to grow familiar crops outside of their usual rainfall zones, e.g., more oats in the southern region and more barley in the northern region
• Revisit the level of nitrogen fixation achieved by current varieties of legumes, if it is possible to significantly reduce synthetic nitrogen application after legumes and an economic analysis of increasing legume in the program long term
• The effect of early sowing of legumes on nitrogen fixation
• Opportunities for incorporating legumes not harvested for grain into crop-based systems e.g., the economic viability of spraying out a legume break crop in comparison to taking the crop through to harvest.

Understanding and management of greenhouse gas emissions on-farm

In discussing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), results were consistent across locations, in that growers acknowledged that they have limited understanding of the biological processes involved, the methods for calculating their footprint and what implications this has for their business and for the environment.  Growers are seeking to understand the assumptions underpinning greenhouse gas emission accounting and the systems in place to measure and reward actions taken towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. This feedback has highlighted the importance for increased extension in this area, particularly in a trusted, grower-friendly format that can be effectively used to adapt current practices with confidence. Growers also identified areas of interest for the project to investigate including:

• An economic evaluation of a low versus high GHG emissions input system, where both rotation and input packages are considered.
• The GHG efficiency of applied nitrogen in comparison to grown nitrogen and the biological processes underpinning this
• Impact of management practices such as soil amelioration, lime application and new technologies to improve efficiency and reduce inputs on greenhouse gas emissions management.

The consultation revealed that growers are seeking more information around how current farming activities contribute to GHG emissions, how accurately the available calculators are calibrated to location, and how implementing strategies targeted at reduced emissions will impact the profitability and potential yields of their system.

Conclusion

The consultation process has identified the knowledge gaps and research priorities for Western Australian growers in the low and medium rainfall zones. Growers have confirmed that, in order to maintain a productive, profitable, and sustainable system, greater understanding is needed of the key requirements underpinning a viable early sowing opportunity, the benefits and opportunities that lie within improved system break options and the impact of incorporating mitigation strategies for GHG emissions on the economic viability of the system.

This feedback has been used in the trial planning phase of the WA Farming Systems Project and will continue to inform activities and extension opportunities throughout the life of this research program.

If you would like to keep up to date with the outcomes of this project, please visit the WA Farming Systems website https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/wa-farming-systems-project or contact Dayna Hutchison with any questions.

Acknowledgments

DPIRD would like to acknowledge AgInnovate, led by Danielle England and Rebecca Wallis, who were an integral part of conducting this consultation process.

The research undertaken as part of this project is made possible by the significant contributions of growers through both trial cooperation and the support of the GRDC; the author would like to thank them for their continued support.

Contact details

Dayna Hutchison
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
28752 Great Eastern Highway, Merredin WA 6415
Ph: (08) 9081 3103
Email: dayna.hutchison@dpird.wa.gov.au