Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
Agricultural Machinery Research Design Centre
Agricultural Machinery Research Design Centre
Investigation into the effects of direct drilling techniques on seed placement and crop growth in dryland farming systems.
The focus of this study investigates the factors affecting seed placement, and the relationship between direct drilling techniques and crop establishment and growth in a sandy loam soil in dryland farming systems. It also studies the effect on root growth of different machines. Dry matter in different growth stages and root density will be measured.
The framework to be employed in this research is divided into two parts. Firstly, the combination of narrow points with wings, slots, covering devices and a conventional point that are likely to have positive effects on crop establishment and crop growth will be studied. All machines will be tested under controlled conditions (using soil bins). For each point, certain parameters will be measured and compared. These parameters are seed placement, soil profile, back filling, seed/soil cross sections, soil bulk density and rate of seedling emergence.
Secondly, field experiments will be conducted on a sandy loam soil at Roseworthy Campus Sites S.A. in order to study the performance of the different techniques with their different actions on seed placement, crop establishment, root growth and yields as well as different crops.
Four machines and three crops to be studied are as follows:
A prototype 50mm narrow-winged close to inverted "T" point with a harrow as covering device.
An experimental 50mm narrow-winged point (different wing geometry) with a 50mm slot and a harrow as covering device.
The same narrow-winged slotted point with a banked type (80mm width x 380mm diameter) solid rubber press wheel as covering device.
A 7 inch wide conventional point and harrow to cover the seeds wheat cv. Machete, peas cv. Alma and faba beans cv. Fiord will be sown at a depth of 40mm under dryland farming systems
