Precision nutrient mapping for dryland agriculture in North-East Victoria

This project is trying to better understand farm scale soil variability and if there are efficiencies to be made in the application of scarce and increasingly costly inputs.  Four farms at Bungeet, Benalla, Earlston and Longwood are partnering in the project.  At each site, paired paddocks of similar size and soil type are being used to compare the economic response to variable rates of fertiliser and lime.

On each farm, one paddock – the Precision Paddock has been sampled intensively to identify the variation in soil nutrients and pH.  In this paddock, fertilizer and lime have been applied at different rates to address the within paddock variation.  The Control Paddock receives fertilizer and lime based on the paddock average.  Stocking rate and animal performance data from both paddocks are being collected by participating farmers to enable an economic evaluation of the different approaches.  By using stocking rate differences between the paddocks as a measure of productivity, the project aims to examine how precision application of fertilizer and lime compares to paddock averaged approaches to soil management.