MPCN: Do Micronutrients Reduce Frost Risk ? | Department of Agriculture and Food WA скачать в хорошем качестве

MPCN: Do Micronutrients Reduce Frost Risk ? | Department of Agriculture and Food WA

Research between the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, Murdoch University and CSBP is being undertaken to evaluate the different copper formulations used to treat Cu deficient soils and investigate the relationship between copper deficiency and frost damage. Transcript Narrator: The aim of the More Profit From Crop Nutrition program is to help growers improve the return on investment from fertiliser inputs. One of the projects under the More Profit From Crop Nutrition Program will deliver new guidelines for micronutrient management in WA cropping systems. One of the current issues affecting micronutrient management is copper deficiency and the suggested relationship with frost damage, here at a trial site located just a few kilometres south east of York in Western Australia, a collaborative research effort between the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, Murdoch University and CSBP is being undertaken to evaluate the different copper formulations used to treat Cu deficient soils and investigate the relationship between copper and frost. Ross Brennan: I'm Ross Brennan Department of Agriculture and Food, I'm based in Albany and I'm a principal research officer. Well probably the main way of doing it is to look at the copper history, if the farmer knows that it's twenty years since he put on the original copper application or hasn't used copper in any form in that period of time there's probably very strong possibility that copper could be a problem. The other way is to plant test, plant tissue testing. You can do that earlier in the season and as well known critical concentrations that allow us to say this crop is now, marginally copper deficient or deficient, and you can take corrective measures without losing any significant proportions of your yield. Narrator: In our current cropping systems that are more productive, intensive and reliant on supplies of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers, there's some suggestion the micronutrient deficiencies will re-emerge. Copper deficiency in particular has similar symptoms to frost damage and it's important to be able to distinguish between the two. Ross Brennan: Well certainly, if copper is severe and you get very acute short growth so it does affect the growth of the plant, as well, again, it's the youngest issue becomes, the youngest emerging tissue the curled and becomes like a needle, has a needle like structure. So that's at the vegetative stage when we move into the grain production, as the copper is required in pollen formation, you get infertile heads so the head will form, look as though it is full of grain but there's nothing in it, or very shrivelled grain and you get what I we call rat tail heads, so the top part on the head thins out like a rat tail and comes all scrubby and bushy, and often turns white, so you have a white head. This is what we call a shepherd's crook and when it's mildly deficient, grain is able to form within the head and the weight of the grain actually pulls the head over, so it's just the weight of the grain signifying that you've got weak straw. The symptoms of copper and frost to are very similar in the plants, so you get malformation of the head and often the two symptoms are often confused Narrator: For further information about the copper and frost trials visit the Department of Agriculture and Food website. You can also download the MyCrop app from the department's website, which aids in paddock crop diagnostics. Visit the Grains Research and Development Corporation's website for more information about the More Profit from Crop Nutrition programs. End of transcript Read more at: You can also find Department of Agriculture and Food WA on Twitter:   / daf_wa   Facebook:   / departmentofagricultureandfoodwa   Linkedin:   / department-of-food-and-agriculture-wa