Crops

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development continues to support the growth and international competitiveness of all crop industries in Western Australia.

With a 2400 kilometre span from its tropical north to its temperate south, WA supports a broad range of cropping industries from rain-fed winter cereals through to irrigated horticultural crops.

In the 2012/13 year the WA cropping industries exported a total of $3.9 billion which comprised: $3.1 billion of cereals, $859 million of pulses, pastures and oilseeds, $142 million of horticultural crops. The major contributors to these exports were wheat ($2.7 billion), canola ($756 million), barley ($377 million), lupins ($42 million), carrots at $48 million, oats ($12 million), and strawberries at $5.5 million.

Articles

  • The aim of carbon farming is to sequester more carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as part of Australia's response to climate change.

  • Soil organic carbon (SOC) is inherently low in Western Australian soils – limited by climate and soil type – with some potential to increase through management.

  • Claying involves adding and incorporating clay-rich subsoil into water repellent topsoil to overcome the repellence.

  • Waterlogging causes significant reductions in plant growth in some years and some environments in the high rainfall (greater than 600 mm annual rainfall) areas of South West Western Australia.

  • Waterlogging is a common problem in the agricultural soils of south-west Western Australia in the wetter months of winter.

  • MySoil is a simple tool to identify soil types. Growers can use soil identification to improve soil management and reduce the impact of soil constraints.

  • If you are deep-ripping, ploughing or spading to remove subsurface compaction or another constraint, it is a good idea to incorporate lime in the same operation.

  • Confident identification of soil compaction to restrict crop or pasture growth uses diagnosis combining visual symptoms of plant, root and soil features.

  • Soil acidification is an inevitable and ongoing consequence of productive agriculture.

  • Liming to recover an acidic soil to an appropriate pH can result in significant production benefits, however a response to liming indicates that previous production has been lost due to an acidic t

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