Effect of soil acidity and liming on lucerne and following crops in central-western New South Wales

2006 ◽  
Vol 46 (10) ◽  
pp. 1291 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Mullen ◽  
B. J. Scott ◽  
C. M. Evans ◽  
M. K. Conyers
Keyword(s):  
Soil Profile ◽  
Soil Acidity ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Residual Effect ◽  
Acid Tolerance ◽  
Stand Density ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Carry Over

On some of the lighter textured soils in the wheatbelt of central-western New South Wales near Dubbo, soil acidity is a major problem, and lucerne (Medicago sativa) often establishes and grows poorly. We selected a site with a surface soil pHCa of 4.4 and an exchangeable aluminium of 0.4 cmol(+)/kg, which was also acidic down the soil profile. Experimental plots of 4 application rates of lime (nil, 1, 2 and 3 t/ha) in 4 replications were established. The site was limed in 1990 and lucerne sown in May 1991. Over the next 6 years the trial was periodically grazed with sheep, and lucerne regrowth and stand density were monitored. In October 1997, the lucerne was removed and 3 crops of varying acid tolerance (wheat, barley and canola) were sown as split plots in both 1998 and 1999. Lucerne density was higher in the limed plots compared with the unlimed treatment, and this difference persisted for 6 years. Dry matter production of lucerne was increased by lime applied at rates up to 2 t/ha. All 3 crops sown after the lucerne phase responded to lime applied 8 and/or 9 years earlier. The responses were attributed to the strong residual effect of the lime in the 0–10 cm soil layer, to smaller improvements in the 10–20 cm zone (possibly due to the movement of lime down the soil profile over the 7 years before the date of measurement) and to carry over effects of nitrogen fixation by the lucerne into the cropping phase. The protein content of the wheat grain was increased concurrently with grain yield due to the previous liming and resultant legume nitrogen effects. The results support the application of lime to improve the productivity of lucerne and subsequent crops, even when the soil is acidic to depths below the cultivation layer.

Pseudogley in Gundaroo Subsola, Southern Tablelands, New South Wales

Soil Research ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dijk DC Van
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Prairie Soil ◽  
Red Earth

The genesis is discussed of a range of pedological differentiations which occur unusually deep in the soil and characterize low, but not the lowest, catenary segments of the Gundaroo pedomorpholith. This soil layer forms a large part of the soil mantle on the Southern Tablelands and is of considerable age. The deep-seated differentiations have developed as separate 'accessory' features below red-yellow and meadow podzolic, prairie soil, and red-earth sola of normal depth (2-4 ft). The zone in which they occur is termed the 'subsolum'. The features are dominated by vertical patterns related to planar and tubular voids. They include, besides a range of sesquioxidic forms, conspicuous clay differentiations comprising pronounced cutans and up to 1-1 1/2 in. wide vertical clay veins and well-developed pedality with thick colloid coatings. These features are believed to represent 'descendant' pseudogley and to be related to an unusually dynamic palaeoclimatic regime.

Production of summer crops in northern New South Wales. II. Effects of tillage and crop rotation on yields of sorghum

1992 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
JF Holland ◽  
DF Herridge
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Tillage Practices ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
One Year ◽  
N Fertility ◽  
Rotation Crop

Two crops of sorghum were grown in successive summer seasons at 3 sites on alkaline, black earth soils near Tamworth, New South Wales following either soyabeans, mungbeans, cowpeas, pigeonpeas, sunflowers or sorghum. Tillage practices were cultivation using a chisel plough and scarifier, and no-tillage using atrazine and glyphosate for weed control. Variation in grain yield (1.0-8.4 t/ha) was largely associated with variation in Dec.-Feb. rainfall (128-475 mm). An average of 15 kg grain/ha was produced for each mm water above the threshold value of 83 mm. At the high (Site A) and low (Site C) N-fertility sites, the rotation effect on sorghum yields was significant for one year, but did not carry over to a second sorghum crop. Cowpeas were the best rotation crop, followed by sunflowers mungbeans and soyabeans. At the low N-fertility site, sorghum following cowpeas outyielded sorghum after sorghum by 47% in the unfertilized plots and by an aExperiments to examine the effects of tillage practice and crop sequence on the production of sorghum grain in northern New South Wales are described. Two crops of sorghum were grown in successive seasons at three sites on alkaline, black earth soils near Tamworth following either soybean, mungbean, cowpea, pigeonpea, sunflower or sorghum. Tillage practices were cultivation using a chisel plough and scarifier, and no-tillage using atrazine and glyphosate for weed control. Variation in grain yield (1.0 to 8.4 t/ha) was largely associated with variation in December-February rainfall (128 to 475 mm). We calculated that an average of 15 kg/ha of grain was produced for each mm water above the threshold value of 83 rnm. At the high (Site A) and low (Site C) N-fertility sites, the rotation effect on sorghum yields was significant for one year, but did not carry over to a second sorghum crop. Cowpea was the best rotation crop, followed by sunflower, mungbean and soybean. At the low N-fertility site, sorghum following cowpea outyielded sorghum after sorghum by 47% in the unfertilized plots and by an average of 27% over all N treatments. It is likely that the increased yields of sorghum in the rotation plots resulted from higher levels of plant available N from both N2 fixation activity (legumes only) and reduced amounts of N removed with the harvested grain (particularly cowpea and sunflower). At the non-responsive, moderate-fertility Site B, water, rather than N, was limiting. Responses to no-tillage were apparent only in the very dry 1984/85 season (December to February rainfall, 42% below average). In the other three seasons, the cultivated crops outyielded the no-tilled crops or the differences between the two practices were not significant.

Seasonal growth of an Australian cultivar of creeping-rooted lucerne (Medicago sativa)

1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (34) ◽  
pp. 548 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Daday ◽  
JW Peak ◽  
T Launders ◽  
DG Cameron ◽  
GB Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medicago Sativa ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Relative Yield ◽  
Stand Density ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Seasonal Growth ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Summer Temperatures

Stand density after establishment and yield of the first Australian creeping-rooted lucerne bred in Canberra, were compared with those of the cultivars Hunter River, Hairy Peruvian, Du Puits, and African under markedly differing climatic conditions in 13 trials in eastern, southern, and south-western Australia. A highly significant cultivar X locality interaction was detected in each of the three seasons (spring, summer, and winter) in which yield was measured. Differences in the relative yield of Hunter River and the creeping-rooted lucerne in environments differing in temperature account, in part, for this effect. In environments of moderate summer temperatures such as the tablelands of New South Wales and Tasmania, the sward yields of the new cuitivar measured in spring, summer, and winter were similar to those of Hunter River, but were significantly inferior in areas with high summer temperatures.

The fate of nitrogen fertilisers added to red gradational soils at Batlow, New South Wales, and its implications with respect to soil acidity

Soil Research ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 863 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. P. Little
Keyword(s):  
Ammonium Sulfate ◽  
Soil Acidity ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Soil Analysis ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Profiles ◽  
Eucalypt Forest ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Exchangeable Ca

Red gradational soils at Batlow, in New South Wales, which are used for apple growing, have acid subsoils with exchangeable aluminium (Al) frequently in excess of exchangeable calcium (Ca). There is often inadequate Ca in the fruit cortex of post-harvest apples to maintain good fruit quality and this can lead to losses in cool-store. It is possible that Al in these acid subsoils has interfered with Ca uptake by the trees. The excessive use of nitrogenous fertilisers leads to soil acidity, and it was thought likely that this was exacerbating the subsoil acidity common in the district. In October 1992, soil analysis detected considerable ammonium in the surface 0·3 m at orchard sites at Batlow monitored for mineral nitrogen (N). This probably came from heavy spring dressings of fertiliser. One site examined in detail showed that about half of the ammonium had disappeared by January 1993, but a large nitrate envelope appeared with a peak at 0·6 m which in turn disappeared by April that year. This establishes that heavy applications of ammonium are nitrified, leached into the subsoil, and lost. Under such a high N regime, orchard soil profiles should be more acid than adjacent forest soils. However, it was found that the acidity of the surface soil was less, and the exchangeable Ca greater in the orchard soils, compared with soil profiles in the adjacent eucalypt forest, although amelioration of the subsoils had not occurred. Samples taken from representative sites at Batlow, at the 0–0·1, 0·1–0·2, and 0·3–0·4 m depths, were dosed with ammonium sulfate and leached with water in the laboratory for 23 days in a free-draining environment. Nitrate and ammonium were determined in the leachates. At the end of the experiment, the pH and exchangeable Ca, Mg, and Mn were determined in the leached samples. Only the neutral surface soils were able to nitrify ammonium effectively and nitrification was positively correlated with pH, and with exchangeable Ca and Mg. From this it is argued that the acidity produced by the addition of ammonium sulfate or urea will be nitrified in the surface but the acidity produced will be neutralised, provided it is accompanied by an adequate dressing of lime. Ammonium tends to remain in the surface soil, but if leached, it will not be nitrified in the subsoil. Nitrate leached into the subsoil will not be acid-forming but, if denitrified, may help to reduce acidity. For this work, the soil pH was measured in 1 KCl. So that readers can refer this to the pH in 0·01 CaCl2, a relationship was established between the two measures.

Soil profile development in some alluvial deposits of eastern New South Wales

Soil Research ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 305 ◽  
Author(s):  
PH Walker ◽  
RJ Coventry
Keyword(s):  
Soil Profile ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Progressive Increase ◽  
Mineral Weathering ◽  
Alluvial Deposits ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Flood Plains ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The One

Soil profile data from river terrace sequences on the New South Wales coast and southern highlands have been summarized. In all sequences the profiles have a progressive increase in soil development from low alluvial benches to flood plains to terraces. The general similarity of soils among these and other alluvial sequences in eastern New South Wales is the basis of a descriptive generalization in terms of five profile stages: stratic stage on low alluvial benches; cumulic stage on flood plains; low-contrast solum stage on low terraces; high-contrast solum stage on high terraces; extended subsolum stage on highest terraces. Sufficient lack of correlation occurs between sequences to suggest that the profile stages are groupings within a continuous spectrum of profile variation, the whole representing the one pedogenetic pathway. Pedogenesis in these alluvial landscapes is considered to progress through the development, first of a biotic profile which reaches a maximum within 1000 years, which is then degraded with the onset of mineral weathering and B horizon development, to a maximum solum form within 30 000 years. The rates of change of biotic and mineral profile components are sufficiently slow that only broad limits of confidence can be applied to soil stratigraphic correlations based on field morphology alone.

Characters contributing to high yield in Currawong, an Australian winter wheat

1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 853 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. D. J. Penrose ◽  
K. Walsh ◽  
K. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Grain Yield ◽  
Soil Acidity ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Yield Component ◽  
Stem Rust Resistance ◽  
High Yield ◽  
South Central ◽  
South Wales

This study investigated characters that contribute to high grain yield in the recently released Australian winter wheat, cv. Currawong. Currawong was released as a feed grade wheat for south-central New South Wales, with a 10% yield advantage over the highest yielding milling wheat with winter habit, Rosella. When expressed as a percentage of the grain yield of Rosella, Currawong was found to perform best at sites with low soil pH and high grain yield. These sites corresponded to the wetter eastern margin of the wheatbelt in south-central New South Wales. While part of the yield advantage of Currawong is due to its tolerance of soil acidity, there remains an ability to yield particularly well in environments conducive to high yield. In yield component studies that were conducted over 2 seasons at Temora, the yield advantage of Currawong appeared to be associated with its grainfilling characters. Currawong had a more rapid rate of grainfill, and/or a longer duration of grainfilling than other high-yielding winter wheats, leading to significantly heavier grain. From a plant breeding perspective, the high yield of Currawong is significant for demonstrating rapid genetic gain for yield in Australian winter wheats. The yield of Currawong also demonstrates the possibility of combining high grain yield with the Sr26 stem rust resistance. Characters that confer high yield in Currawong may be of limited benefit in environments where drought stress limits the duration of grainfilling in wheat.

Surface soil acidity and fertility in the central-western wheatbelt of New South Wales

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 184 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Evans ◽  
B. J. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Acidity ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Sodic Soils ◽  
Surface Soils ◽  
Pasture Production ◽  
South Wales

Documentation of the chemical fertility status of the soils is sparse for the western and central-western wheatbelt of New South Wales, Australia. We examined properties of the surface soils (0–10 cm) from central-western NSW by collating two published and nine unpublished datasets of soil analyses representing about 2800 soil samples. The emphasis was on the red soils used extensively for cropping. The surface soils of central-western NSW have low phosphorus (47% of soils) and sulfur (70% of soils <5 mg S/kg using KCl-40 analysis) status and commonly have organic carbon contents of about 1%. Surface soil acidity was a substantial problem with 56% of soils (0–10 cm) having a pHCa <5.0. Sodic and dispersive soils are also of concern in this area and these soils have received little attention or research. Approximately 5% of surface (0–10 cm) soils had an exchangeable sodium percentage of ≥6% (sodic). Salinity of surface soils was of minor significance compared with other soil problems in the area, although isolated areas occur. These results indicated that lime applications in this area are likely to benefit crop and pasture production. Additional use of phosphorus and sulfur fertilisers and agricultural practices which increase or maintain organic carbon will also need to be adopted to improve pasture and crop production. The use of gypsum and/or lime on sodic soils may also need to be addressed. As a priority, we suggest that the benefits of lime application to crop yield be examined. The application of lime to the 0–10 cm soil depth should ultimately arrest acidification of the subsurface soil (10–20 cm depth) through downward movement of the lime effect. Further examination of gypsum applications to dispersive sodic soils and the evaluation of sulfur deficiency in the field for pastures and canola are also priority areas of likely agricultural relevance.

The influence of surface incorporated lime on subsurface soil acidity

1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
MK Conyers ◽  
BJ Scott
Keyword(s):  
Soil Acidity ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
The South ◽  
South West ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Subsurface Soil

The aim of this study was to establish whether surface incorporated liming materials could reduce subsurface acidity. Three sites on the southwest slopes of New South Wales, between Wagga and Albury, were sampled at 2 cm depth increments to 16 cm, 5 years after the liming materials were applied. Limestone and dolomite had been applied at 0,2 and 8 tlha in 3 replicates. At 2 t/ha the effect of the liming materials on pH was largely confined to the depth of incorporation. At 8 t/ha substantial pH increases occurred to 6 cm or more below the depth of incorporation. In general, the movement of Mg>Ca> HCo3 (pH), and was consistent with the soil's ability to hold those cations and to neutralize alkalinity respectively. Agriculturally realistic liming rates are not likely to ameliorate subsurface soil acidity on the south-west slopes of New South Wales.

Problems in assessing insecticidal control of Amnemus species (Coleoptera. Curculionidae) in clover pastures of north coastal New South Wales

1963 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Braithwaite ◽  
Annette Jane
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Residual Effect ◽  
Soil Sampling ◽  
Patchy Distribution ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Effect On Yield ◽  
One Year ◽  
Made In

Results are presented of 15 experiments made in north coastal districts of New South Wales from 1957 to 1961 with insecticides against the weevils Amnemus quadrituberculatus (Boh.) and A. superciliaris (Pasc.), the larvae of which have been reported as pests attacking the roots of clover (Trifolium repents, T. pratense and T. subterraneum) there. The adults live above ground, and single surface applications of insecticides were made to pastures in the form of dusts, granules or dilutions of emulsifiable concentrates in January, when maximum numbers of weevils were present and before significant oviposition had taken place. Insecticidal control was assessed by soil sampling for larvae in July–August, during the following winter. Pasture cuts were made in an attempt to assess the effect of treatments on the yield of clover.Dieldrin at rates of 2 and 4 lb. per acre gave near eradication of Amnemus for one year, and satisfactory control was obtained with 1 lb. per acre. Aldrin, endosulfan (Thiodan) and BHC were less effective, and limited tests with heptachlor suggested that it was inferior to dieldrin. The scanty results available suggest that dieldrin is effective against Amnemus for only one year, but it is doubtful if annual applications are warranted. Owing to the patchy distribution of clover in the pastures, only one experiment showed an increased yield of clover associated with the reduction in numbers of larvae of Amnemus brought about by the application of 1 lb. dieldrin per acre. Similarly, poor persistence of clover on all plots prevented assessment of any residual effect on yield in the second year.No method was found by which accurate estimates could be made of the density and distribution of adults of Amnemus in pastures to which insecticides were to be applied. Treatments, therefore, were replicated more frequently than was needed statistically in order to ensure that measurable levels of larval infestation were present at sufficient sites.Small plots (500–700 sq. ft.) proved of little value, and this is attributed not only to contamination of control plots but possibly also to the death of weevils that moved from untreated into treated plots. Large plots (13,000–21,000 sq. ft.) gave the most consistent results in assessment of insecticides.Control of Amnemus did not increase the productivity or persistence of clover, and it is concluded that any benefits from control are unlikely to be significant unless other factors, such as competition from grasses, drought, floods, nematodes and diseases of clover, which affected the density and persistence of clover in these experiments, are not limiting.

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