http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/9458 2016-04-28T08:36:26Z info:eu-repo/semantics/descriptiveMetadata http://oar.icrisat.org/9458/ Long-term cropping system studies support intensive and responsive cropping systems in the low-rainfall Australian Mallee Whitbread, A M Davoren, C W Gupta, V V S R Llewellyn, R Roget, D Others Continuous-cropping systems based on no-till and crop residue retention have been widely adopted across the low-rainfall cereal belt in southern Australia in the last decade to manage climate risk and wind erosion. This paper reports on two long-term field experiments that were established in the late 1990s on texturally different soil types at a time of uncertainty about the profitability of continuous-cropping rotations in low-rainfall environments. Continuous-cereal systems significantly outyielded the traditional pasture–wheat systems in five of the 11 seasons at Waikerie (light-textured soil), resulting in a cumulative gross margin of AU$1600 ha–1 after the initial eight seasons, almost double that of the other treatments. All rotation systems at Kerribee (loam-textured soil) performed poorly, with only the 2003 season producing yields close to 3 t ha–1 and no profit achieved in the years 2004–08. For low-rainfall environments, the success of a higher input cropping system largely depends on the ability to offset the losses in poor seasons by capturing greater benefits from good seasons; therefore, strategies to manage climatic risk are paramount. Fallow efficiency, or the efficiency with which rainfall was stored during the period between crops, averaged 17% at Kerribee and 30% at Waikerie, also indicating that soil texture strongly influences soil evaporation. A ‘responsive’ strategy of continuous cereal with the occasional, high-value ‘break crop’ when seasonal conditions are optimal is considered superior to fixed or pasture–fallow rotations for controlling grass, disease or nutritional issues. CSIRO Publishing 2015-04-28 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://oar.icrisat.org/9458/1/Crop%26PastureSc_2015.pdf Whitbread, A M and Davoren, C W and Gupta, V V S R and Llewellyn, R and Roget, D (2015) Long-term cropping system studies support intensive and responsive cropping systems in the low-rainfall Australian Mallee. Crop & Pasture Science, 66 (06). pp. 553-565. ISSN 1836-0947 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CP14136 info:eu-repo/semantics/objectFile info:eu-repo/semantics/humanStartPage