Improved subsoil macroporosity following perennial pastures

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 299 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. McCallum ◽  
J. A. Kirkegaard ◽  
T. W. Green ◽  
H. P. Cresswell ◽  
S. L. Davies ◽  
...  

Biopores left in the soil by perennial and annual pastures and their effects on macroporosity, water infiltration and the water use and productivity of subsequent wheat and canola crops were investigated in a field experiment on a Sodosol in southern New South Wales. Phases of both lucerne (4 years) and phalaris (10 years) improved the macroporosity and water infiltration into the dense B horizon compared with continuous annual crops and pastures. After removal of lucerne and phalaris, the subsoil (> 12 cm depth) contained similar numbers of pores > 2 mm diameter (228 and 190/m2, respectively) compared with a mean of 68/m2 after annual crops. However water infiltration rate after lucerne was greater than after phalaris, apparently because of more numerous pores > 4 mm, rather than a change in total porosity. The subsoil after phalaris on the other hand contained more pores 0.3 mm in diameter and a higher total porosity, possibly because of more roots around this diameter, and a longer period without traffic or cultivation. The number of lucerne biopores in the subsoil remained unchanged (170–180/m2) for at least 2 crops after the lucerne was removed although the average size decreased. The volume of water extracted from the subsoil by crops following lucerne was similar to that following annual crop/pasture for 10 of the 12 crop comparisons made. For 2 of the crops, more subsoil water (22 and 24 mm) was used after lucerne than after annuals, and in 1 season this was associated with higher yield of canola. During the 3-year study there was no winter waterlogging or post-anthesis water stress, so there was little opportunity for yield responses to improved subsoil structure. The results confirm speculation that the unfavourable structure of dense subsoils can be improved by the biological action of perennial pasture roots, although reduced wheel traffic and cultivation during the pasture phases may also play a role. Further studies will be necessary to demonstrate associated yield improvements.


1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 677 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lemerle ◽  
AR Leys ◽  
RB Hinkley ◽  
JA Fisher ◽  
B Cullis

Sixteen spring wheat cultivars were tested in southern New South Wales for their tolerances to the recommended rates, and three times the recommended rates, and three times the recommended rates of barban, diclofop-methyl, difenzoquat and flamprop-methyl in 1978 and 1979. Differences between cultivars in their tolerances to barban and diclofop-methyl were identified in the grain yield responses to three times the recommended rates of these herbicides. Crop damage was more severe in 1978 than 1979. Olympic, Shortim, Teal and Warimba were consistently susceptible to barban, while Condor, Cook, Egret and Oxley were more tolerant than the other cultivars. The differences between cultivars treated with diclofop-methyl were smaller and variable. However, Lance, Teal and Tincurrin were the most sensitive whilst Cook, Kewell and Oxley showed the greatest tolerance. Visual assessments of crop damage did not accurately reflect crop tolerance, therefore grain yield should be used to identify susceptible cultivars.



2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Rozefelds ◽  
Richard W. Barnes ◽  
Belinda Pellow

The vegetative and reproductive morphology of Vesselowskya Pampanini, southern marara, is described and illustrated in detail. The variation within V. rubifolia (F.Muell.) Pampanini sens. lat. is shown to be greater than has previously been recognised, with the differences identified supporting the recognition of a new segregate species, V. venusta Rozefelds, R.W.Barnes and Pellow sp. nov. Vesselowskya venusta occurs in the Barrington Tops Plateau of New South Wales and differs from V. rubifolia in possessing hairs on the abaxial surface of the sepals and lacking both a prominent distal connective protrusion on the anthers and colleters at the base of the stipules. The two Vesselowskya species are dioecious with a vestigial ovary in staminate flowers and reduced stamens in pistillate flowers. Dioecy is more pronounced in Vesselowskya, than in some Weinmannia species, and in both genera is expressed through reduction in the size of the ovaries in staminate flowers, and stamens in pistillate flowers. Vesselowskya shares with the other genera in the tribe Cunonieae (Pancheria, Weinmannia and Cunonia), a central column in the fruits, and Cunonia-type stipules, but differs from these genera in having valvate aestivation, digitate leaves, craspedodromous secondary venation with secondary veins terminating at a tooth, tuft domatia along the midrib, adaxial epidermal cells with strongly sinuous cell walls and the absence of hydathodes.



1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (35) ◽  
pp. 767
Author(s):  
RN Allen

Control of post-emergence damping-off, basal stem rot, and root rot of vetch (Vicia sativu) caused by Pythium debaryanum and other pythiaceous fungi, was obtained in a sod-sown field trial at Wollongbar, New South Wales, by applying the fungicide Dexon (R) (p-dimethylaminobenzenediazo sodium sulphonate) with the fertilizer in the furrow at sowing. Dexon improved plant establishment and survival, and increased plant vigour in the early stages of growth. Dry matter yield of vetch was increased from 206 lb an acre without Dexon, to 604 lb an acre with Dexon applied at 8 oz an acre (4.3 mg per row ft), with a corresponding reduction in the cost of fodder produced. Yield responses were also obtained at lower and higher rates, but at 64 oz an acre the Dexon was phytotoxic and no yield response was observed despite excellent disease control.



1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (40) ◽  
pp. 541 ◽  
Author(s):  
PW Grogan ◽  
DS Teakle

Seven out of eight maize inbred lines developed at Lawes in Queensland from open-pollinated varieties were resistant to maize dwarf mosaic disease when exposed to natural infection in the field. Five of the seven resistant inbred lines failed to become systemically infected when inoculated with infectious sap in the glasshouse. By contrast, only three out of twenty lines introduced from the U.S.A., and two out of eight lines developed at the Grafton and Glen Innes Breeding Stations in New South Wales, were resistant in the field. All three resistant lines from the U.S.A. were systemically infected when inoculated in the glasshouse, but the two resistant lines from Grafton in New South Wales were not. The resistant Lawes and Grafton maize inbred lines would appear to be better sources of genes conferring resistance to maize dwarf mosaic disease than the other lines tested.



1967 ◽  
Vol 7 (24) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
P McInnes ◽  
TJ Grainger ◽  
MD Smith

Data are presented on the recovery and reproductive performance of 2 1/2-year-old maiden Merino ewes after a prolonged period of undernutrition. The 217 sheep had been hand-fed on a submaintenance ration in pen feeding trials at Glenfield, New South Wales. During the seven months of the trials they had lost 6 kg (28 to 22 kg) body weight. They were transported to Condobolin in south-western New South Wales, divided into two treatment groups and run on good quality pastures. One group was joined immediately (May 1959) and again ten months later, and the other group was mated after six months at Condobolin (in October 1959) and again 12 months later. The ewes recovered rapidly. The mean weight of both groups had reached 30 kg within six weeks and 40 kg within six months. In the first year 73 of the 100 May-mated ewes bore lambs, but only 38 of these lambs were weaned. Ewes bearing lambs had a higher body weight at the start of joining and gained more during joining than the barren ewes. At the other three joinings (October 1959, May 1960, October 1960) lambing percentage was from 86-89 and weaning percentage from 62-69-both normal for the district. The proportion of twin lambs (3-6 per cent) was low. Wool weight in 1959 was not affected by time of mating or by pregnancy.



1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Spencer

Yield responses d a native pasture on a basaltic soil near Willow Tree, New South Wales, were measured in the second, fourth, and seventh years after the application of several rates of calcium sulphate in the first year. The value of the residues declined sharply at first and then more slowly. Fifty per cent of the potential response by the legumes (the responsive component of the pasture) was achieved by an application of 7lb of sulphur an acre in the first year ; residues from an application of 20 lb of sulphur an acre were required in the second year, and from 48 lb S of sulphur an acre in the fourth year, to obtain the equivalent responses. By the seventh year, effects were too small to allow the derivation of a comparable figure.



1983 ◽  
Vol 23 (121) ◽  
pp. 192 ◽  
Author(s):  
SM Bromfield ◽  
RW Cumming ◽  
DJ David ◽  
CH Williams

Three methods of estimating available manganese and aluminium status in acid soils were compared on three groups of soils from the Pejar district near Goulburn, New South Wales in which differences in pH had been brought about by different periods under subterranean clover pasture. Managanese extracted by 0.01 M calcium chloride gave the best correlation with the manganese concentration in rape and subterranean clover grown in pot culture, and provided the best index of available manganese. Soil solution manganese was inferior to CaCl2-extractable manganese and was more difficult to determine. Extraction with neutral ammonium acetate was unsatisfactory because this reagent overestimated available forms of manganese in soils containing high levels of reactive manganese. Aluminium extracted by 0.01 M CaCl2 was well correlated with exchangeable aluminium and with percentage aluminium saturation of the effective cation exchange capacity. None of the three measures of aluminium status alone was an effective index for predicting lime response by rape on these soils because both manganese and aluminium status were involved in this response. These three parameters were equally effective in multiple regressions for yield responses of rape to lime. Because of its relative ease of determination, CaCl2 extraction is preferred as a practical measure of aluminium status. Aluminium interacted with and increased the toxic effects of manganese in rape. Thus CaCl2-extractable manganese alone only provided a satisfactory index of a 'critical' value for manganese toxicity in rape for soils low in available aluminium. Subterranean clover was only slightly affected by aluminium and manganese levels in these soils, and manganese toxicity symptoms were only observed on soils containing 50 ppm or more CaCl2-extractable manganese. Nodulation failure in pots occurred in all soils with pH below 5.2 (water) or below 4.3 in CaCl2, whereas nodulation was normal when these soils were treated with CaCO3 to raise the pH to 5.8-6.0 (water). With one exception nodulation appeared adequate at field sites from which soils showing nodulation failure in the glasshouse had been collected.



Soil Research ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
GJ Osborne

Six surface and subsoils known to contain native intercalary ammonium were examined to assess the importance of ammonium fixation when nitrogen fertilizers were applied, the availability of native and recently fixed intercalary ammonium to plants, and the effect of potassium on fixation. Only one soil, a grey soil of heavy texture (Ug 5.4), fixed significant amounts of added ammonium sulphate, the level of intercalary ammonium being increased by 55 % in the surface and 100% in the subsoil. The native level of intercalary ammonium was reduced by 8 and 17% by the growth of plants in the red-brown earth (Dr 2.23) and the grey soil of heavy texture, respectively, but was unchanged in the other soils. The addition of small amounts of potassium prior to the ammonium did not affect fixation; however, additions of 500 ppm reduced the fixation of a 200 ppm solution of ammonium by 80 %. Intercalary ammonium is not considered to be important in the nitrogen economy of five of the six major farming soils of the slopes and plains area of southern New South Wales. The sixth, the grey soil of heavy texture, is an alluvium associated with the Murrumbidgee River and its tributaries, and as such is used extensively for irrigated agriculture. Because this soil can fix large amounts of ammonium, the use of ammonium or ammonium forming fertilizers is not recommended.



1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damon L. Oliver

The dietary items fed to regent honeyeater, Xanthomyza phrygia, nestlings and fledglings by adults were recorded in two consecutive breeding seasons in the Bundarra–Barraba region west of Armidale, New South Wales. Insects were the most common dietary items fed to juveniles (53% of identified items), followed by lerp (26.5%) and nectar (20.5%). Nestlings were fed mostly insects (58% of feeds), and carbohydrates (nectar and lerp) made up the rest of their diet. Fledglings, however, were fed mainly carbohydrates (nectar and lerp comprised 61.2% of all items) while protein from insects was the other major component of their diet. Males tended to feed juveniles more insects than did females, although there were no significant divisions of labour between parents in selecting dietary items for nestlings or fledglings. This study highlights the importance of insects and lerp in the diet of juvenile regent honeyeaters, and the diversity of plant species on which their parents foraged. The species shows a broader resource selection than was found in previous studies which considered the species to be highly nectarivorous and selective for a few key eucalypt species. The importance of insects and carbohydrates other than nectar in the diet of the regent honeyeater needs to be recognised in the development of conservation strategies for the species.



Zootaxa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 1441 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
DAVID T. DRUMM

Two new species of kalliapseudid tanaidacea from Australia, Kalliapseudes longisetosus and Kalliapseudes messingi, are described from marine waters off Sydney, New South Wales and the Northwest continental shelf, respectively. Kalliapseudes longisetosus is distinguished from the other congeners by the presence of a single, very long simple seta on the anterior corners of the pereonites (about as long as the first pereonite) and several very long simple setae on the basis of the second and third pereopods (about as long as the basis). This new species is the second member of the genus to be reported from New South Wales. Kalliapseudes messingi is distinguished by having two small setae medially on the dactylus of pereopods 4 and 5, by the female having a tuft of sensory setae subterminally on the dactylus of pereopod 6, and by having three plumose setae on both the cheliped and pereopod 1 exopodite and is the first member of the genus to be reported from the Northwest continental shelf of Australia. Both species have a needle-like tip on the dactylus of the second and third pereopods. A table giving the distribution data for the species of Kalliapseudes and a key to the genera and species of Kalliapseudidae now known from Australia are presented.



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