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Enhanced efficiency fertilisers are generating plenty of interest among grain growers and will be one of the feature topics at the Hart Field Day on Tuesday, September 17.
Associate Professor Helen Suter from The University of Melbourne will provide insights to help grain growers make on-farm decisions about fertiliser use.
“It is important for growers to know what enhanced efficiency fertilisers actually do,” Helen said.
“There’s a number of different types of products available on the market, but sometimes I think there’s a lack of clarity about why you would want to use one over the other.”
Dr Suter said deciding whether to use urease inhibitors, nitrification inhibitors or controlled release fertilisers could be confusing, and she would highlight their different benefits and share some research results.
“A urease inhibitor is used primarily to reduce ammonia volatilisation from surface application of urea,” she said.
“A nitrification inhibitor is primarily used to reduce nitrous oxide emissions — which is a greenhouse gas — and nitrate leaching losses.
“And controlled release fertilisers slow the release of nutrients from the fertiliser they are applied to and therefore are designed to better match the plant needs.
“We do know that some of these products work very well, but how well they work is influenced by where they are used in terms of climate, soil types and the land management practices that are occurring — for example, whether people are applying their fertiliser on the surface or deep banding.
“There’s lots of impacts from the environment influencing how well they’re going to work.”
Dr Suter and The University of Melbourne team have been researching nitrogen efficiency fertilisers, their use and inhibitors, for almost 20 years.
In 2025, they will partner with Hart Field Day to expand the research to the Hart field-site through an Enhancing Efficiency Fertilisers trial, funded by Grains Research and Development Corporation.
It will be the first South Australian site for the project.
“Through this project we will try to demonstrate to growers what things will work and what won’t work and their impacts on the efficiency of nitrogen use within the crop,” Dr Suter said.
“We’re not just interested in looking at what the losses might be, we’re interested in how they would work to enable growers to maybe reduce nitrogen rates and have the same amount or an improvement in yield.”
Helen said she hoped, through information-sharing and continued research, grain growers would also be well prepared for the future.
“It’s important for growers to think about what might be coming in the future in terms of whether there will there be any regulations or incentives, such as the carbon emissions reduction fund, that will require them to be using some of these products.”
Dr Suter’s sessions will be in the newly upgraded Hart Research Hub (formerly known as ‘the shed’) throughout the Hart Field Day rolling program.
Gates will open at 9am on Tuesday, September 17.
Admission is $45, students $15.
The site is 10 kilometres north of Blyth, just off the Blyth to Brinkworth road.
For tickets and more information go to www.hartfieldsite.org.au, contact Sandy Kimber on 0427 423 154, or email admin@hartfieldsite.org.au.