A survey of farmer practices and attitudes to nitrogen management in the northern New South Wales grains belt

Abstract

Summary. The use of nitrogen fertilisers to arrest the decline in soil nitrogen fertility in the northern grains belt of New South Wales has been the subject of many years of research, however, little is known about how farmers make decisions about nitrogen fertiliser. A survey of 400 wheat farmers in northern New South Wales in April 1997 revealed that many have recently changed their fertiliser practices. Although most respondents had been growing wheat since the 1960s, regular applications of nitrogen only commenced in the mid 1980s. Initially only low rates of nitrogen were applied, but in the last 2–5 years, the nitrogen rates have substantially increased. These changes are notable because until this decade, most were content to rely mainly on mineralisation of soil organic nitrogen, whereas, now, half the respondents in the survey plan to add as much nitrogen in fertiliser in 1 year as was removed in the previous year’s wheat crop.

Farmers were asked to rate the importance of a number of factors that have been promoted as means of tactically adjusting fertiliser rates. This study found a disparity between the level of measurement and precision suggested by the majority of research, development and extension programs compared with the methods used by farmers. In general, the respondents to the survey have rejected, or are yet to adopt, regular soil testing, the use of climate forecasts and decision support programs. Rather, they rely on simple rules of thumb based on readily accessible data such as past grain protein content and cropping history.