This project is part of the GRDC Riskwi$e program.
This project has two key objectives that address the priorities of the SA Drought Hub:
- Arming farmers and advisors with tools to assist in decision making that considers risk and reward, through two major extension events on Eyre Peninsula, directly addressing the SA Drought Hub theme: Farm planning and decision making to manage climate and operational risk.
- Extending soils information to improve resilience through improved productivity in constrained areas of paddocks, directly addressing the SA Drought Hub theme: Soil and land management strategies, technologies, and innovations.
Project description:
This project supports the SA Drought Hub’s priorities of farm planning and decision making and soil and land management through four key activities on the Eyre Peninsula in 2024:
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Activity 1: Two AIR EP Member Days held in Kimba (3 July) and Wangary (4 July), focused on decision-making and risk management, with support from guest speaker Dr. Kate Burke. These events complement the GRDC RiskWi$e project and aim to engage around 60 farmers and advisors in total.
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Activity 2: Monitoring of a sandy soils amelioration demonstration site by SARDI to assess legacy effects (plant establishment, resistance, yield). Results will be shared via AIR EP channels and farmer meetings, engaging around 20 participants.
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Activity 3: Monitoring of four saline soils sites (Penong, Karcultaby, Minnipa, Buckleboo) and extension of a soil management decision tree. Includes field visits and discussion groups in spring 2024 led by SARDI and Insight Extension for Ag, engaging approximately 60 participants and four farmer groups.
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Activity 4: Expansion of the EP soil site collection on the Soil Hub website with three new sandy soil locations. These will include soil testing, pit establishment, site imaging, and online extension materials, engaging both in-person and online audiences.
Together, these activities aim to improve drought resilience, inform decision-making, and support long-term soil health strategies across the region.
Key achievements and results:
2025 project update
The project is currently on track, with all planned activities having occurred except the collection of penetrometer readings to enable the completion of the three new soil hub virtual soil pits as part of Activity 4. It has just started raining, so hopefully we get enough to wet the soil profile enough for penetrometer readings. If not, sites will be ‘watered up’.
In the first half of 2025, Activity 3 was completed with the delivery of three dry saline soils workshops presented by Chris McDonough. The workshops were value added with Sean Mason presenting on “VRT in practice”, as part of the Future Drought Fund project “Building farming systems resilience and future proofing the impacts of drought through accelerating the adoption of proven cost-effective and yield responsive soil and fertiliser management practices by farmers across southern Australia. 43 people attended the workshops held at Kimba, Minnipa, and Ceduna in March 2025.
Read this report: Ameliorants to improve dry saline land patches in three-year demonstrations on upper Eyre Peninsula
Further information:
For further information on this project, please visit AIR EP.
Ameliorants to improve dry saline land patches in three-year demonstrations on upper Eyre Peninsula
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