Rice grower drills into sowing techniques
Planting rice straight into the ground with an air seeder might not be the most common way to sow a crop in Australia.
But, if the method uses less water and chemical, as New South Wales Nuffield Scholar Peter Kaylock suggests, it could give the aeroplane a run for its money.
The rice grower from Moulamein in the western Riverina, has been direct drilling rice crops on the 7,000 hectare property, he manages with his family, for a number of years.
With local research on the method still evolving, he wanted to learn how other farmers overseas have tackled weed problems and improved their yields in direct drilled crops.
With support from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDIC) and Ricegrowers' Association R & D committee, he travelled extensively.
He visited the United States, visiting farms in Louisiana, Ohio and California, then across to the United Kingdom, Italy, France and South America.
He says some of the European farmers planted cover crops to improve their soils and he believes a similar approach on his country would give the crop a head start.
"What I've done in the last couple of years and want to do a lot more of, is try and establish a pasture before our rice and sod seed straight in to it.
"It's what we used to do 50 years ago in rice.
"It seems to keep the moisture in the ground, it doesn't crack open and the seed seems to germinate quite readily."
During his travels abroad, Peter Kaylock was also inspired to try out some new technology.
While in England, he came across a company near York, which sold machinery to measure the plants chlorophyll and density levels.
He says the system collected the information and conveyed it to a spreader mounted on the back of a tractor, which then applied fertiliser to crop in the paddock according to the measured parameters.
"The biggest factor in our rice crop, because we leave all our water off for a long period and then put on our nitrogen as we go to permanent water, we've really got no way of knowing the amount of nitrogen we need to finish the crop.
"With this, I used it last year for the first time, I gave it two applications of fertiliser and it did even the crop out."
Peter Kaylock says direct drilled rice systems are the way of the future.
"There will be a lot more scrutiny on how much water we use.
"There's definite savings and it gives us different management techniques to manage different situations."