A PROJECT which involves the testing of soil moisture probe technology was one of the key focuses of the Liebe Group's Spring Field Day held at Dalwallinu earlier this month, with the ultimate aim being to increase growers' awareness and knowledge about how the technology could add value to their businesses.
The 18-month pilot project, which was made possible through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program Smart Farms Small Grants Program, involves sites around the Liebe region with soil moisture probes at 10 centimetre intervals down to a depth of one metre, plus automatic weather stations and rain gauges.
Liebe Group executive officer Katrina Venticinque said that by evaluating the real-time data, farmers could understand the implications of management decisions and gain confidence for future decisions.
"They can capture significant data, such as plant and soil available moisture, which allows them to see where plant roots are active and how much water is available for a crop," Ms Venticinque said.
"Understanding those factors assists growers to improve their knowledge around crop water use efficiency and increases their knowledge around how different soil types and crops use available moisture.
"Ultimately it helps them to make and analyse decisions in season as they can see the data around the implications of their management decisions."
While the probes themselves measure soil moisture and water use efficiency, the weather stations capture data around rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed and Delta T.
The project was also co-invested in by the 14 growers involved in the trial, with their farms spread from Perenjori down to Ballidu and from Watheroo across to Xantippe.
Buntine grower Mike Dodd had his station installed two days before ex-Tropical Cyclone Seroja and said farmers did a lot based on gut feel, but the technology gave them a more scientific base.
"These soil probes are scattered around different crops and soil types which allows us to compare data from across the Liebe region," Mr Dodd said.
"We've had such good rain this year, but the past four or five weeks have been pretty dry and we've been able to watch that profile of moisture diminish, so it'll be interesting to see how our gut feel compares when it's really bad.
"Every year is different and this year has been super wet, whereas next year we might not get the summer rain and if the probe is only showing moisture to half a metre, then that will help to inform our in-season decisions regarding fertiliser, etc."
The data from the probes can help growers to evaluate resource management practices such as implementing strategic fallow on heavy country, deep ripping, amelioration of non-wetting soils and applying lime.
By expanding the understanding and adoption of these technologies within the region, the hope is that growers will be able to better manage their water-use efficiency for improved productivity, profitability and long-term environmental sustainability.
"You can attach a few different probes to each station, so it would be great to have one in unripped soil and one in ripped soil to compare how the plants access the water during the year," Mr Dodd said.
"We know in a ripped soil that the crops hang on more, but if that probe can show the profile of it, it adds more of a scientific approach."
The funding for the project takes Liebe Group through until the middle of next year, however the growers involved have already confirmed that they want to continue the maintenance and the subscriptions to the provider moving forward.
Ms Venticinque said that gave them the chance to see what the technology could do, as this type of technology took a while to settle in.
"The first year when that probe goes down, the soil is disturbed around it which skews some of the results, but as the soil settles down and we can get two or three years of data to compare similar crops and soil types, it becomes incredibly reliable," she said.
"There has been lots of interest in it, however we're probably not getting accurate data just yet and it will likely be another season before people can reliably act on the data that is coming through."
