Soils buzzing with biological activity have created a dilemma for Windy Station cropping manager Peter Winton – crop germinations are just too good. The high plant population counts in a sorghum crop sown on cotton country signified how far the soils had come in six years of biological treatment. Mr Winton uses TM Agricultural, an organic soil activation product produced by Best Farming Systems, across the 10,000 ha cropping enterprise on Windy Station.

As a result, nitrogen rates have been slashed by two thirds, while improved moisture infiltration has combined with reduced soil compaction, insecticide applications and fungicide use. Seeding rates have been lowered to 50kg/ha on wheat, with average yields of 5t/ha now achievable in variable seasons, and average yields for dryland triticale crop have increased to 7t/ha. This is underscored with a healthy ecosystem where more than 80 native bird species have been documented.

Owned by Romani Pastoral Company, Windy Station encompasses 21,500ha in the heart of the NSW Liverpool Plains. The company is vertically integrated with a beef herd, cattle feedlot and a cropping program of winter cereals, sorghum, lucerne, corn, cotton and sunflowers under irrigated and dryland systems. Set in a 550-600mm rainfall zone. The aggregation has black cracking clay soils with a pH of 7.0. Peter Winton arrived at Windy Station in 2002 to manage an enterprise with a solid history of no-till.

Despite the high use of nitrogen and sulphate of ammonia, the crops were suffering from low plant germination rates, poor moisture infiltration and soil compaction. Motivated by his own personal philosophy of nurturing soils, Peter turned to stubble mulching to increase water infiltration. Instead the soil turned “cheesey’’ and was devoid of earthworms. “It was dead soil. We blamed the tillage machinery but what we were actually doing was killing the soil,’’ Mr Winton said. “The soil was so compacted and germinations that bad, we increased our seeding rate by 42 per cent to compensate. “The next step was to find something to solve the problem.

‘’Mr Winton was introduced to TM Agricultural by Best distributor and local farmer Andrew Bowman. The TM is applied at 250mls/ha as a fallow spray a month before sowing, followed by an in-crop spray mixed with a herbicide. Mr Winton was immediately impressed by the ease of application on the first 300ha trial in 2009. “The first thing we noticed in that trial paddock was how the soil fluffed up,’’ he said. “Just walking into the paddock, I could feel the difference and the spreader operator asked what we had done as the soil was so much softer. The soil had lost its sour smell.’’ The next year, TM Agricultural was applied to all sorghum paddocks, followed by the wheat country.

Today, the entire cropping area of cotton, sorghum, wheat and grazing forage cereals is treated with TM. Composted feedlot manure is also applied every four years at a rate of 4t/ha. Stubbles are left at a height of 25cm then mulched to allow the soil biology to break it down. Mr Winton said the cropping system on Windy was geared around water conservation and water use efficiency. The hills and sloping country have been sown with tropical pastures varieties for grazing and to improve water quality and reduce soil erosion. “This year on the cotton country, wheat will be planted and treated with TM purely to feed the soil microbes,’’ Mr Winton said.

He travelled to Canada in 2011 to see first hand the use of TM in broadacre row crops, oilseed and cereal crops. “I was astonished at what Canadian growers were achieving in root development on reduced input costs – I concluded Australians are throwing too much fertiliser on crops,’’ he said. Nitrogen use on Windy Station has now dropped on wheat from 140 to 50kg/ha, down to 60kg/ha on sorghum, down to 40kg/ha on sunflowers and to 50kg/ha on cotton. Fungicide applications have been reduced. “I intend to maintain those rates to find a happy medium without impacting on yield potential,’’ Mr Winton said. “Everything is working together to improve crop quality – the TM, manure and rainfall.

“I planted sorghum on cotton country this year and the germination was too good. I have to rethink the plant populations to find the optimum level. “The tillage equipment is working so much better – the planter is not bouncing around and is working at the level it was designed to do. “We can now achieve up to 7t/ha in dryland triticale crops. “Earthworm numbers are increasing and they are getting bigger – I call them rattlesnakes.’’ Mr Winton is impressed with the straw strength and root development of the plants. “Our test weights were brilliant this year on no rain, the oil content in the sunflowers was 39-40 per cent and admix was only 2.5 per cent. “The sunflowers were so even in the heads, resulting in an easier harvest and better quality sample.’’

Best Environmental Technology agronomist Keiran Knight has monitored the cotton crops on Windy, submitting leaves for nitrogen level analysis to the CSIRO. Mrs Knight said the tests revealed nitrogen levels of 4.59 per cent in the crop treated with 50 units of nitrogen plus TM, and 4.53 per cent in the crop treated with TM and zero nitrogen. She said cotton crops were normally grown with five to 10 times the amount of nitrous fertiliser. “It’s good to see the flip side and how it can be grown on minimal synthetic fertilisers,’’ Mrs Knight said. Overseeing a program dictated by seasons and gross margins, Mr Winton never intends to go down the 100 per cent biological path but seeks sustainability. “I sleep better at night as I’m more comfortable with the way we are heading. If the TM wasn’t working, it would have been stopped long ago. “I’m searching for the happy medium where biological and chemical fertilisers can work together to be sustainable, profitable and ecologically responsible.’’

Media Release By
Kim Woods | Director
Outcross Media | www.ogacreative.com.au
540 Young Street, Albury NSW 2640
P 02 6023 4266 | M 0499 772 860 | F 02 6023 1236