Understanding frost and minimising financial risk due to frost in the MNHRZ
Lead organisation: Mid North High Rainfall Zone Group
Hub members and partners involved: Agrilink Agricultural Consultants, SARDI, AgCommunicators
Node: Roseworthy
Project Category: Hub Projects
Project summary:
This project is part of the GRDC Riskwi$e program.
The project will be conducted at the MNHRZ research site at Farrell Flat. This site is a highly frost prone area of the Mid-North of SA. The project will consist of field trials on a site co-located with SARDI, Agrilink and CSIRO research. This will provide a hub for activities and extension events.
The project will include strategies to:
- avoid frost (sensitive stages outside of a frost risk period, alternative enterprises eg pastures for livestock, SHO safflower).
- increase the tolerance of crops by reducing the impact of ice nucleating bacteria using applied treatments and low seed bacteria levels.
- mitigating the impact of frost by using dual purpose cereals suitable for hay or late season grazing.