Long-term cropping system studies support intensive and responsive cropping systems in the low-rainfall Australian Mallee
A. M. Whitbread A B C D , C. W. Davoren A , V. V. S. R. Gupta A , R. Llewellyn A and the late D. Roget A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, Waite Campus, Waite Rd, Glen Osmond, SA 502664, Australia.
B Crop Production Systems in the Tropics, Georg-August-Universität, Grisebachstr. 6, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
C International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502 324, Telangana, India.
D Corresponding author. Email: a.whitbread@cgiar.org
Crop and Pasture Science 66(6) 553-565 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP14136
Submitted: 11 May 2014 Accepted: 12 November 2014 Published: 28 April 2015
Abstract
Continuous-cropping systems based on no-till and crop residue retention have been widely adopted across the low-rainfall cereal belt in southern Australia in the last decade to manage climate risk and wind erosion. This paper reports on two long-term field experiments that were established in the late 1990s on texturally different soil types at a time of uncertainty about the profitability of continuous-cropping rotations in low-rainfall environments. Continuous-cereal systems significantly outyielded the traditional pasture–wheat systems in five of the 11 seasons at Waikerie (light-textured soil), resulting in a cumulative gross margin of AU$1600 ha–1 after the initial eight seasons, almost double that of the other treatments. All rotation systems at Kerribee (loam-textured soil) performed poorly, with only the 2003 season producing yields close to 3 t ha–1 and no profit achieved in the years 2004–08. For low-rainfall environments, the success of a higher input cropping system largely depends on the ability to offset the losses in poor seasons by capturing greater benefits from good seasons; therefore, strategies to manage climatic risk are paramount. Fallow efficiency, or the efficiency with which rainfall was stored during the period between crops, averaged 17% at Kerribee and 30% at Waikerie, also indicating that soil texture strongly influences soil evaporation. A ‘responsive’ strategy of continuous cereal with the occasional, high-value ‘break crop’ when seasonal conditions are optimal is considered superior to fixed or pasture–fallow rotations for controlling grass, disease or nutritional issues.
Additional keywords: climate variability, continuous cropping, crop modelling, low rainfall cropping, risk management, rotations.
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