Sandy Soils

Understanding your soil constraints: choosing the right treatment to maximise long-term returns

This masterclass provides insights into diagnosing soil constraints, selecting the most appropriate treatment and understanding the long-term economic return of management tactics, such as amelioration.

Join leading soil scientists, engineers, agronomists and researchers for a practical masterclass that will take you through the decision-making process, from identifying constraints in the soil pit through to evaluating whole-farm machinery options and implications.

Masterclass speakers:

• Dr Kenton Parker, CSIRO
• Dr Nigel Wilhelm, SARDI
• Dr Mel Fraser, Soil Function Consulting
• Dr Jack Desbiolles, Adelaide University
• Dr Chris Saunders, Adelaide University
• Sam Trengove, Trengove Consulting
• Stuart Sheriff, Trengove Consulting
• Brett Roberts, host grower

During the masterclass, you will:

• Identify the physical and chemical constraints limiting crop performance in sandy soils, such as repellency, nutrients, acidity and high strength soils.
• Understand which soil amelioration options are best suited to different constraints and how soil amelioration influences yield outcomes and paddock management.
• Explore machinery options, operating considerations and implementation techniques.

Masterclass features:

• Examine a soil pit with soil specialists to identify key sandy soil constraints.
• Inspect paddock demonstrations showing responses to deep ripping and other soil amelioration techniques.
• Discuss machinery selection and set-up with agricultural engineering specialists.
• Interpret local trial results and compare the performance of different amelioration strategies.
• Explore the relative costs of different soil amelioration techniques using local farming examples and discuss how treatments influence long-term profitability.