Agronomy
SARDI's agronomy research program focuses on dryland broadacre farming systems, covering the state’s low, medium, and high rainfall zones. Our applied science supports:
- cereals – bread and durum wheat, barley, oat
- pulses – lentil, field pea, faba bean, lupin, chickpea
- oilseeds – canola, safflower
- farming systems – rotations, on-farm inputs, gross margins
- soils – soil carbon, nutrition, amelioration of constraints
- weeds – broadleaf and grass control, herbicide use, alternative management options
- fodder – oat hay, dual purpose crops, mixed pasture species
- climate – risk decision making, modelling, drought resilience.
Research outcomes
We develop strategies to optimise crop and soil management that increase farm productivity. This involves:
- Evaluating synergies in crop management and variety.
- Conducting field research for crop adaptation to heat, drought, and frost.
- Integrating new crop variety and breeder lines into best-practice agronomic guidelines.
- Considering plant phenology, environment, sowing time, rainfall and nutrient inputs to overcome yield constraints.
- Developing risk modelling scenarios to inform crop and soil management under a changing climate.
- Helping producers adopt new technologies for on-farm and post-farm crop improvement.
- Extending management practises for acid soils, calcareous soils, sandy soils, and soil carbon.
Find out about our SA Discovery Farms project to improve climate resilience for SA cropping, livestock, and mixed farms.
Locations
Our research is based at Clare, Minnipa, Nuriootpa, Port Lincoln, Struan, and Waite.
We operate across regional offices, laboratories, workshop facilities, and mobile field equipment. Our accessible network of trial sites extends to private farms and research centres across SA grain districts.
This coverage generates relevant information for local crop and soil farming, facilitating rapid practice changes for the industry.
Collaborations
Collaborations
We work closely with the following local farming system groups, industry groups, and plant breeders:
- Agricultural Innovation and Research Eyre Peninsula (AIR EP)
- Ag Excellence Alliance
- Agricultural Bureau of South Australia
- Australian Grain Technologies (AGT)
- Buckleboo Farm Improvement Group (BFIG)
- CSIRO
- GIA
- Grain Producers SA
- Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)
- Hart Field Site Group (Mid North)
- Intergrain
- Landscape South Australia Boards
- LongReach Plant Breeders
- Livestock SA
- MacKillop Farm Management Group
- Mallee Sustainable Farming (MSF)
- Murray Plains Farmers Group
- Mid North High Rainfall Zone Group (MNHRZ)
- Northern Sustainable Soils Inc.
- Pulse Breeding Australia
- South Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub
- The Southern Australia Durum Growers Association (SADGA)
- The South Australian Grain Industry Trust (SAGIT)
- Thomas Elder Institute (TEI)
- Upper North Farming Systems (UNFS).
Contact
A/Prof Rhiannon Schilling – Program Leader
Agronomy, SARDI
Phone: (08) 8429 2926
Email: rhiannon.schilling@sa.gov.au
