Long-term trials of drought resilient farming practices in Victoria

WHY THIS PROJECT IS IMPORTANT

Drought is an inescapable part of the Australian landscape and it is important farming businesses are well prepared for its impacts. 

This project is trialing a number of farming systems adaptations that have the potential to improve drought resilience in broadacre grains, grazing and mixed farming businesses across Victoria and Tasmania. The project involves both replicated and demonstration trials, which are being used to trial and showcase innovative practices that can support farming businesses before, during and after drought.

As part of this project, a central trial site at The University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus has been established to evaluate several agronomic and systems practices thought to improve drought resilience. This central site is being complemented by three satellite trials and multiple on-farm demonstrations, with the central trial site also being used to test future scenarios by applying artificial heat waves. 

We are currently looking for demonstration hosts, as well as farmers and advisers who would like to be part of our Reference Group for these projects! If you are a mixed farmer and would like to try something new with your rotation (i.e. legumes), or your cropping, pasture or livestock management (for example different plant species, management for soil or livestock nutrition, or stocking rate), please contact Sophie Hanna at sophie@riverineplains.org.au. The demonstrations will fit within the hosts’ existing crop and pasture rotations and livestock management systems, while providing an opportunity to try something different.

Combining data from multiple replicated and demonstration trials with climate projections generated through modelling and analysis, aims to identify adaptations to mixed farming systems and practices that may improve drought resilience and its associated risk management. The project also includes a social research element to investigate pathways and barriers to the adoption of practices, which will be used to inform the extension work carried out by Riverine Plains during the project. 

It is expected that this project will benefit grains, red meat and wool industries directly, as well as contribute to the extension of drought resilient options for diary and fodder producers. 

Project focus

Riverine Plains is establishing a demonstration site in Victoria and planning a range of extension activities to extend findings from the central hub trial at Dookie. Riverine Plains is also delivering a similar project in NSW, which involves two demonstration sites in NSW and activities to extend findings from the Wagga Wagga central hub trial.

The central hub sites at both Dookie, Victoria and Wagga Wagga, NSW, consist of replicated ‘mini farms’ which represent different farming systems. Over four years, these “mini farms” will be sown to crop and pasture species according to the farm system they represent, with soil, plant and livestock measurements collected as the rotations progress. The data collected will be used in modelling software to integrate agronomic and economic comparisons of each system.

For the duration of the project (2024-2027), Riverine Plains will use findings from the central hub trials, as well as input from members and advisors, to shape paddock-scale demonstrations of practices that could benefit farmers in the Riverine Plains.

Dookie, Victoria, Central Hub Long-Term Trial

The first year of the Victorian central hub trials were sown in April 2024, at The University of Melbourne’s Dookie Campus. Over four years, these large (0.36 ha) plot replicated trials will be sown to crop/pasture treatments according to the rotation of the farming system they represent. 

The four systems and their treatment rotations are:

• Intensive cropping – canola and spring wheat
• Mixed farming with annual pasture – vetch, dual-purpose canola, and winter wheat
• Mixed farming with ley pasture – two years of clover, dual-purpose canola, and winter wheat
• Grassland (native pasture)

The two mixed farming systems will be grazed by sheep, representing a self-replacing flock.

Riverine Plains is delivering the engagement and extension activities for the Dookie Central Hub Trial via field days and events, as well as through our publications and online channels.

We are eager to hear from our farming members and industry professionals about any ideas you may have for demonstration trials, the central hub trials or suggestions for improving this project.