A RESEARCH trial in Emerald has produced interesting results, with wider row spaces in winter grain crops proving as effective as their narrower counterparts.
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The trial, run by Department of Agriculture and Fisheries senior regional research agronomist Darren Aisthorpe, is being run again this year in an attempt to replicate the results.
“Traditional knowledge says narrower row spacing, high population is always going to give you better yields,” Mr Aisthorpe said.
“What we saw last year is while the population story held true, we actually saw wider rows do as good as the narrow stuff.
“We’ve never seen that substantiated before.
“Work done in the 90s said once you go to a wider row space, so a 50cm space, as opposed to a 25cm, you’re losing up to half a tonne per hectare yield.”
The research trial is looking at a variety of agronomic projects, focusing on the physiology of wheat varieties across the northern growing belt – from Emerald in Central Queensland as far south as Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.
There are three different trials being run at the Emerald Agricultural College site this year.
A time of sowing trial with 30 varieties ranging from quick-growing varieties to long season varieties, a separate time of sowing trial focusing on one variety of wheat, and a population by row spacing, by variety, by time of sowing trial are being conducted.
“So what we’re trying to do there is look at what affect population and row spacing is having on yield potential,” Mr Aisthorpe said.
Kelly Butterworth
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
