New Technologies for Wheat Crop Monitoring
The aim of this project was to assess the usefulness of new technologies to support crop management decisions on the Eyre Peninsula. The technology evaluated as part of this project included recently installed soil moisture probes and an infrared spectroradiometer. Wheat grain yields are subject to high annual variation as a result of many factors, particularly the availability of water and nitrogen resources in rain-fed cropping systems in semi-arid environments such as South Australia [1,2]. Within season and within paddock variability can contribute to uncertainty associated with crop potential and cropping inputs resulting in the need for continuous crop monitoring, including soil moisture content and crop nitrogen status There are many new tools such as soil moisture capacitance probes and infrared spectroscopy that can be utilised to collect and analyse crop performance data that are rapid, cost effective and nondestructive strategies. Other tools, e.g. APSIM, utilise a simulation model-based approach and rely on a range of input information (e.g. sowing date, nitrogen inputs) to predict various crop information, e.g. soil moisture and yield. Soil moisture capacitance probes have recently been installed on the EP and are an attractive tool as they are of low-cost, time-efficient, require little attention once installed, and provide continuous data on soil moisture throughout the soil profile. These instruments will also have the ability to compare data with previous years and once enough data has been collected, may aid in crop choice decisions by assessing pre-sowing plan available water, potentially provide increased confidence in sowing time by assessing soil moisture reserves, and possibly assist with informed input decisions with the aim of lowering inputs in years of low moisture and increasing yield potential when favourable seasons occur [3].There is however, the question of whether a single probe can be relied upon for field-scale interpretations due to potentially large variability across the paddock and the distance from the probe that it is able to measure [4]. There are limited examples of the use of soil moisture probes in dryland cropping systems in South Australia, but interest and awareness in this technology is increasing.
Authors: Danielle J. Allen, Andrew Ware and Kenton Porker
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