After a dry start to the year and a very late germination, there has been some activity at the Faulkner Brother’s property in Beacon, with biomass samples taken from wheat at their deep ripping trial.

The trial has been adapted to suit the season with biomass now being analysed to test any impact of deep ripping, due to the unlikelihood of the crop producing grain for harvest.  The treatments  included deep ripping with and without top soil slotting; ripping, top soil slotting and injected nitrogen at seeding, and unripped control strips. 

The early results are indicating that the biomass of the wheat, within the treatment area of deep ripping with top soil slotting, is showing a benefit of 27% over the control plots with no ripping. Adding nitrogen to the ripping and top soil slotting treatments in a dry year, at this stage in the data analysis, is looking detrimental. “These results are very early in the trial analysis, but it has been a positive outcome to see any effects at all in such a dry year” said Dr Paul Blackwell, the technical advisor working with the Faulkner’s on this trial.