Creating lasting crop profitability in a cropping operation can sometimes feel a bit like a never-ending circus act. Producers are constantly juggling profitability variables, trying to ensure nothing gets dropped and cropping operations stay profitable. So with a plethora of variables to choose from, how do producers pick those most impactful for their farms?

The Big 6 Drivers of Crop Profitability

A recent GRDC project has some pretty insightful answers, particularly when it comes to managing stubbles while continuing to drive profitability^[1]. The GRDC maintains that not managing stubbles can have an adverse effect on “the big six” drivers of crop profitability:

1. Summer weed control
2. Timely sowing
3. Adequate and even crop establishment
4. In-crop weed control
5. Foliar and root diseases
6. Nitrogen-based nutrition

Depending on the types of residual stubbles and the rotation of crops within the paddock, the impact can vary, and it can be more detrimental to one particular “big six” driver than another. But knowing how and when to manage stubbles can present some marked improvements in crop performance and profitability.

The GRDC offers a number of options to help producers avoid blockages, deter pests, and meet other challenges of crop production by managing stubbles. But some are particularly worth pointing out, as they apply to high-cost centres like crop establishment and in-crop weed control.

Strategic Cultivation – A Net Positive

Strategic cultivation^[2] provides relatively small disturbance to the soil profile and very small chances of erosion, particularly if employed as late as possible to avoid erosive rainfall between the tillage event and the new crop’s establishment growth. When viewed against the weed control advantages strategic tillage can provide in the pre-sowing portion of the growing season, its value becomes a net positive. Its overall value in increasing crop production through weed control outstrips any potential negatives that might exist from possible erosion.

This strategic tillage employment also has the added profitability benefit of driving down weed control costs later in the season by “nipping them in the bud” – quite literally! – during the earlier timeframe. While this value can be hard to track on a balance sheet, spending less in chemical weed control applications certainly is a profitable by-product of the strategic tillage approach.

Read more about strategic tillage & weed control: TILL TO KILL – THE FIGHT AGAINST HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS

Decrease Additive Costs

Decreased spending via tillage is another aspect of profitability that occurs during the post-harvest time-frame, this time through decreased nutrient additive costs. Mulching stubbles back into the soil post-harvest incorporates valuable nutrients back into the profile, including nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and sulfur. Post-harvest top dressing of organic stubble has many benefits:

1. Provides a richer soil profile
2. Increases moisture retention during winter periods, and
3. Decreases the need for broadcast fertilisers during the subsequent growing seasons.

Staggered Weed Control

Employing the combination of these approaches also helps catch weeds at two different growth/development points. It interrupts their germination and early growth in the pre-sowing season, and disrupts their seed setting later in the year. Utilising a staggered weed control approach like this keeps weed propagation levels low, soil enrichment high, and more dollars in the pocket of the canny farmer juggling the checkbook!

Invest in your stubble residue to increase the texture, organic matter and moisture retention of your soil. Progressive farmers are proving the benefits of proper stubble management rather than burning off.

The cutting edge Trashcutter^® by K-Line Ag is proving a major advantage for farmers and has the answer for your stubble handling issues and ground preparation – without any matches!

So What Does It Do?

The advanced design of the Trashcutter^® (patented in Australia and Internationally) lays the stubble sideways with a lay-bar system, ahead of coulters spaced at 130mm apart, leaving an even layer of cut straw on the surface of your paddock. The cutting action of the coulters is controlled hydraulically with little disturbance to your root system. This is key to preventing stubble blowing away, which is important for ease of seeding. There is virtually no soil disturbance when set in the main operating position – a real advantage for soil erosion problems and for those of you who like to minimize tillage wherever possible!

How Can It Benefit Me?

Ideal for long straw, it allows you to lift your header front to take less straw and harvest your crop faster and more efficiently.

Lower operating costs and speed of operation are key advantages of this machine e.g. an 18m Trashcutter^® can cover up to 27 ha/hr. Some operators may even choose to run the machine twice in a season to speed up the breakdown process, without incorporating straw into the soil profile.

Prior to sowing, the Trashcutter^® can be used for melons, clovers, medics, and other viney weeds and is excellent in higher rainfall areas where snail control is an issue.

It can also be adjusted to give minimal soil disturbance. The coulter system can be angled up to 5 degrees, which can be a real advantage where shallow tillage is required for lime and chemical incorporation, as well as some weed control.

The Trashcutter^® system has been extensively developed by K-Line Ag in conjunction with agronomists & farmers requiring a better system for stubble management and is a great tool for minimum to no-till farming situations.

Farmers are at war. They’re up against an enemy that’s increasingly sophisticated, highly adaptable, and capable of responding rapidly to the weapons deployed against them. It’s a war for moisture, for yields, and for revenues. It’s a war against chemically-resistant weeds, and it’s one farmers must use all their knowledge and resources to fight.

Don’t Limit Your Arsenal

You would never walk into a fight without the tools needed to win. The same concept applies to weed control. The decision to wage war against herbicide-resistant weeds doesn’t have to be an either/or chemical or tillage fight. It can be a chemical AND tillage fight. Farmers don’t have to pick one method, and a diversified strategy that utilises both can be extremely successful. They can work together, complementing each other, and bolstering each other’s weaknesses to make the overall fight more effective^[1].

For instance, deploying chemicals against broadleaf-type weeds in autumn while combating grass-type weeds with tillage in spring is a great example of strategic, dual-method controls. Since broadleaf and grasses have different germination times and physiological structures, those methods can be more effective when deployed in tandem^[2].

Know Your Opponent

Weed types, emergence patterns, germination timing, germination depth, preferred germination temperature, seed banking, seed sizing, physical characteristics… The more you know about your opponent, the more effective you can be at deploying the right tools at the right time to get the most positive weed control outcome possible. Once you’ve taken stock of the types of weeds and their biological profiles, you can work out a 1-2 punch strategy for deploying chemical and mechanical ways of disrupting them at the most damaging times.

Hit Hard

When you’re coming into a fight, sometimes it’s right to start with a full-on assault. Weed control is one of those cases. One of the key points in battling weed control is to make sure you’re utilising herbicides at full strength. Under-application is a main contributing factor in herbicide resistance, because weak applications damage weeds without killing them. This then builds “immunity” within the genetics of the damaged plant and passes those traits onto any seeds it produces.

Similarly, tillage needs to be aggressive enough and disruptive enough to not just damage root systems, but truly remove them from the soil. Simple vertical tillage is sometimes not effective enough to kill weeds. Instead it’s knife-type blade pathway injures the plant and its root system without killing them completely. You can read more on the differences between vertical tillage and compact discs on our USA blog.

Don’t Dig Deep, Dig Smart

Farmers struggle with implementing tillage-based weed control in no-till systems, but the no-till approach brings challenges, including an almost single-method reliance on chemical weed control. But a return to deep, heavily disruptive and erosive tillage practices with one-way or moldboard ploughs isn’t the answer either. Instead, studies by the Grains Resource Development Corporation^[3] suggest newer tillage options like compact discs, for finding the sweet spot between achieving weed control and retaining the benefits of a no-till system.

Dual purpose tillers like the Speedtiller^® strike the balance between disruption and soil preservation while still effectively attacking the weed issue. They can still kill off weed seeds, especially finer seeds like grasses, but also help retain soil-building, erosion-controlling soil residues, leaving soil profiles stronger than with traditional tillage methods and machines.

Read more on tillage here: TILL TO KILL: THE FIGHT AGAINST HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS

Attacking weeds with a full array of methods and with a complete understanding of how they work against the weeds in your paddocks is imperative to winning the war against weeds. As weeds adapt to our existing groups of herbicides, exploring disruptive mechanical methods like tillage can give farmers the advantage they need to fight and defeat the weeds!

View it in Action: K-Line Ag Speedtiller^® Warring Against Weeds!

3 THINGS YOU’LL LOSE IF YOU DON’T MANAGE YOUR WEEDS NOW!

COMBATTING RYEGRASS IN THE WAR ON CHEMICAL RESISTANT WEEDS

WINNING THE WAR ON CHEMICAL RESISTANT WEEDS

BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING HERBICIDE RESISTANT WEEDS

The K-Line Ag MaxxRipper^® is coming into its own, as customers are gathering indisputable evidence of the benefits of strategic deep ripping. Although a lot of areas haven’t shown the results expected due to poor weather conditions, results like the MaxxRipper trials below can’t be argued with!

MaxxRipper^® Trials: Difference Between Deep Ripping & Not!

Pictured here are the results of farm contractor Tim Davies’ canola crops in Temora NSW. Tim conducted a test on these two paddocks side by side, deep ripping one and leaving the other. The paddock in the foreground of this photo was ripped, and the other side of the fence (the side showing more flower) was left un-ripped.

In the image below, the plant on the left was from the un-ripped paddock. Comparatively, the plant in the middle is from the paddock he had ripped. The non-ripped canola was sown 8 days earlier, illustrating the growth spurt that deep ripping affords.

Ripped vs Un-Ripped

Notice the horizontal roots of the smaller plant on the left, which was taken from the un-ripped paddock. J-rooting is caused when plant roots come in contact with hard pans which they struggle to break through, which means they can’t access the nutrients further down in the soil profile.

Read More on this topic: SOIL COMPACTION & DEEP RIPPING

Find out more on the K-Line Ag MaxxRipper here, or Contact Us to find out how strategic deep ripping can benefit your farming operation!

More MaxxRipper Trials & Case Studies

Recent Farms and Farm Machinery case study on David McMillan’s application of K-Line Ag products to address dry, compacted soil on his property at Young, NSW… click HERE for full story!

Results of deep ripping in Sunflower Cropping in Parkes NSW: ‘Flower Power – MaxxRipper Breaks New Ground in Sunflower Crop!’

There is currently a 9-Tine K-LINE AG MAXXRIPPER^® available in the Riverina district. Contact Tim Davies on 0409 775 351 for hire information and contact details.