Section 2 - Sugar Research and Development Corporation

Better frost tolerant varieties for NSW –
NSW Farming Systems Group
Frost damage to sugarcane crops affects about
one third of the NSW cane growing lands reducing
production by 10 – 30% and costing the industry
up to $2.5 million in about one in three years.
This project tested whether artifi cial freeze testing
of cane seedlings could be used to identify cane
varieties that would perform well under fi eld
frosting conditions.
Trials ascertained whether subjecting seedlings
to cold room freezing would produce a similar
level of damage to that in the fi eld and determine
an appropriate testing regime of temperature
and duration.
There was some differentiation between varieties,
however the degree of differentiation between
the good, average and poor categories was very
small and the majority of individual trials failed
to show any statistical signifi cance. The trials have
shown that it is diffi cult to clearly correlate ratings
derived by artifi cial freeze testing of seedlings with
known fi eld reaction of more mature cane plants.
Further work may be able to refi ne the techniques
but at this stage it’s not reliable enough to use in
recommendations to farmers on frost tolerance
(GGP041).
The next step for Precision Agriculture –
Homebush Innovative Grower Group
The Homebush Innovative Farmers group, working
with Queensland Government farming systems
agronomist, John Hughes, conducted a longterm
replicated trial to identify agronomic issues
infl uencing yield variability and the subsequent
development of zonal management techniques
for spatially defi ned soil groups.
The aim was to determine the yield potential of
cane on paddock geo-referenced soil groups with
known characteristics and to identify ways to
maximise productivity from those soils with the
best mix of water and nutrient management and
Precision Agriculture (PA).
The trial compared soil bulk density values,
soil penetration resistance, water infi ltration
and yield across defi ned soil groups in a
conventionally grown, traffi c-free crop, and
bare soil environment.
Particle size and chemical analysis results
confi rmed the ability of electrical conductivity
(EC) soil mapping to spatially differentiate
zones of contrasting soil properties and groundtruthing
validated the ability of EC soil mapping
to accurately defi ne variability within-paddocks
and across the farming enterprise. The study
revealed the inadequacy of 1:100,000 coarse
scale soil surveys to support PA where the farm
is mapped as one soil unit.
There was no signifi cant difference in yield and
stalk counts across the soil groups in the plant
cane phase. Unfortunately cyclonic conditions
severely impacted on the integrity of the yield
data in the ratoon phase.
However, subsequent ground-truthing of yield
patterns from processed satellite imagery
provided invaluable information that clearly
demonstrated the relationships and interaction
between soil properties, elevation/ topography
and within-paddock yield variability. A number
of possible PA management practices emerged
from this component of the project that will
provide a potential pathway to manage withinpaddock
yield variability and the geographic
information system layers that will underpin
PA in the future (GGP052).
SRDC Annual Report 2010–2011 61