Variability of optimum sowing time for wheat yield in Western Australia
D. L. Sharma A F , M. F. D’Antuono B , W. K. Anderson C , B. J. Shackley D , C. M. Zaicou-Kunesch E and M. Amjad AA Centre for Cropping Systems, Department of Agriculture and Food, Lot 12 York Rd, Northam, WA 6401, Australia.
B Department of Agriculture and Food, 3 Baron-Hay Court, South Perth, WA 6151, Australia.
C Department of Agriculture and Food, 444 Albany Highway, Albany, WA 6330, Australia; and School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
D Department of Agriculture and Food, 10 Dore St, Katanning, WA 6317, Australia.
E Department of Agriculture and Food, 20 Gregory St, Geraldton, WA 6530, Australia.
F Corresponding author. Email: dsharma@agric.wa.gov.au
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 59(10) 958-970 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR07406
Submitted: 25 October 2007 Accepted: 26 June 2008 Published: 18 September 2008
Abstract
Sowing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at the right time is one of the most important means of maximising grain yield in dryland agriculture. Objectives of this study were to understand the variation in estimates of optimum sowing time as influenced by cultivar and environmental characteristics, and to assess the relative importance of location, season, sowing time, and cultivar factors in maximising grain yield in Western Australia. Twenty-seven cultivar × time of sowing experiments were conducted over three seasons (2003–05) at a range of locations (annual rainfall 300–450 mm, lat. 28–35°S).
There were four types of cultivar × sowing time responses, namely, quadratic, linear declining, flat, and linear increasing, associated with opening rains before mid-May, opening rains after mid-May, low-yielding sites, and good spring rains, respectively. Regression-tree analysis revealed that differences among cultivars in Tmax (sowing time when maximum grain yield was achieved) were much less in the eastern sites (mostly drier seasons). A biplot differentiated cultivars for Tmax across the range of environments used, while the subset regression analysis specifically indicated an association of average temperature and growing-season rainfall with variation for Tmax of individual cultivars.
The yield penalty for sowing before the optimum time in quadratic-type responses was clearly greater for shorter season cultivars but no clear relationship was apparent between maturity class of cultivars and the penalty for late sowing, possibly due to differential plasticity of cultivars for grain weight under harsh finishing conditions. The duration of the optimum sowing window at a given location was inversely proportional to the yield potential, implying that it is critical to sow at or close to the optimum time when the yield potential is high, most common when the season breaks early. Yield component analysis showed that the relative change in grain yield over sowing dates was significantly correlated with relative changes in grain numbers/m2 in the late May sowings but other yield components were also important in the early May experiments. Sowing time accounted for 10% of grain yield variation compared with cultivar (1%), while the rest was due to uncontrollable factors of location and season.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the staff of Avondale, Esperance, Katanning, Mullewa, and Merredin Research Support Units for sowing and harvesting field experiments and to Bruce Haig, Anne Smith, Melaine Kupsch, and Judith Devenish for technical support in the data collection. Financial support from the Grains Research Development Corporation is gratefully acknowledged.
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