About the research
How to get the best dollars returned per hectare, considering physical delivery of water was not promised past 31 March 2020 in the Lachlan Valley. The main questions being asked by the 2020 demonstration activities were: If I plant long-season crops early and grazed them, what income could be generated? What is the best grazing strategy, what crop type would be the best choice between canola and cereal, or would I have been better off selling the water in March?
The demonstration was designed incorporating four crop types – Hyola 970CL canola, La Trobe barley, DS Bennett wheat and LongReach Kittyhawk wheat with three crop outcomes – grain only (nil graze), biomass only (hard graze, terminated October) and grain and graze (light graze) with two times of sowing (TOS) – TOS1 13th March and TOS2 20th April 2020.
The site received 247 mm 1/1/20-12/3/20 limiting the need for end of March irrigation.