Welcome to the fifth edition of Queensland grains research, an annual update of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ Regional agronomy (research) team’s research, development and extension (RDE) across the grain growing regions of Queensland. The team is an important part of the Queensland Government’s strategic investments to support more productive, profitable and sustainable farming systems, and was established with the ongoing support of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). Indeed, every project reported here has co-funding from GRDC in their pivotal role of investing in RDE to create enduring profitability for, and on behalf of, Australian grain growers.
The Regional agronomy (research) team has over 15 research agronomists, extension officers and technical support staff based in Goondiwindi, Emerald and Toowoomba. This enables them to ‘get their hands dirty’ conducting RDE within local farming systems and so ensure the results are both rigorous and relevant to grain growers and agronomists. Queensland grains research is a result of this work, providing up-to-date local results and information that growers and agronomists can use to make the best decisions for the farms that they manage.
The Queensland grains industry faces a range of challenges as our soils age and our farming systems mature. For example, growers face declining soil fertility, extreme climate variability and the threat of herbicide-resistant weeds. However, agronomic advances from targeted RDE and on-farm innovation have delivered, and will continue to support, better practices that advance our agriculture. As such, this edition reports the Regional Agronomy (research) team’s contribution to improved farming systems and practices with experimental work; the data, analysis and insights across five themes: Cereals, Pulses, Nutrition, Soils, and Farming systems research. Many articles report on individual experiments with valuable quantitative data on the likely responses and economic returns for those locations. However, this edition also includes analyses of nutrition and farming system research across the northern grains region to understand major effects and their implications for all growers.
Of course, none of the RDE reported here would be possible without the support of all the collaborating RDE agencies across Queensland and New South Wales, co-investors including the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, and the growers, agronomists and agribusinesses that have provided support along the way. We thank them for this ongoing support.
Finally, we trust that the RDE reported here will help the grains industry and the wider Queensland community in the economic recovery that is needed in the post COVID-19 era, and would value any feedback on work contained in this publication.
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