Riverine Plains project officer Jane McInnes said increasing the diversity of crop rotations could have positive benefits on soil health compared to monocultures, or where break crops were used minimally.
“In this region, we tend to rely fairly heavily on the canola, cereal rotation, with legumes often used sparingly, or not at all,” she said.
“Summer cover cropping, green or brown manuring, intercropping and companion cropping can all provide opportunities to increase species diversity by introducing legumes or other crop species at different points in the rotation.”
To look at this in more detail, a long-term trial site has been established by Riverine Plains at Burramine to examine how more diverse rotations can impact soil function and winter crop yields, as well as profitability.
The trial is supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils and led by Southern Cross University, with support from Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority.
● The virtual field day will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, September 8 from 9 am.
For more information, or to register, visit: www.riverineplains.org.au or contact Jane McInnes on 5744 1713 or email: jane@riverineplains.org.au
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