Works in this collection were published by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia.
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Diagnosing crop and pasture problems with Detective Doug
Doug Sawkins
There are numerous publications for diagnosing crop and pasture growth problems. Although they are excellent for experienced people, they can be time consuming and possibly misleading for the less experienced.
Many guidebooks assume that the user has already decided that their problem falls into the ... Read more
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Exporting vegetables in bulk : reducing supply chain costs without compromising quality
Helen Ramsey and Dennis Phillips
Increased competition, a strong Australian dollar and increased production costs have seen Australian grown vegetables steadily lose their share in traditional export markets.
As competition increases, we need to investigate production and handling techniques that improve our price and quality competitiveness.
Improving the effi ciency ... Read more
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Getting into sheep an introductory guide to sheep management
Keith Croker and Roy Butler
Sheep husbandry can be an interesting and rewarding activity but before starting to work with or buy sheep ask yourself if you are prepared to spend the time and effort to care for them.
Sheep cannot be placed in a paddock and forgotten. The sheep, ... Read more
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Identifying sub-tropical grass seedlings
Brad Wintle, Geoff Moore, and Phil Nichols
There is considerable interest in growing sub-tropical (or warm season) perennial grasses for out-of-season green feed, especially on the south coast and in the northern agricultural region (NAR). They consist of two types: creeping grasses, which spread by either above ground runners (stolons) or below ... Read more
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Landscapes and soils of the Merredin district
D N. Sawkins and Department of Agriculture and Food
The publication aims to provide readers with the principles underlying the formation of local landscapes and soils, and the ability to identify landscapes and their associated soils.
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Lucerne guidelines for Western Australia principles for integrating a perennial pasture into broadacre dryland farming systems
Diana Fedorenko, Perry Dolling, Christopher Loo, Tom Bailey, and Roy Latta
Lucerne, often regarded as the queen of forages, has been used in agriculture for centuries. In Western Australia, however, its potential has never been fully realised despite its well-documented ability to dewater soils and reduce groundwater recharge. Over the years adoption has been limited by ... Read more
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Management of Merino weaners for optimum production
Patricia Harper, Keith Croker, and Danny Roberts
Sheep mortality during the first year of life is a large problem on many farms and poses a significant animal welfare issue for Australian agriculture. Post weaning mortality is estimated to cost the Australian sheep industry more than $89 million annually through reduced income, poor ... Read more
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Managing south coast sandplain soils to yield potential
Department of Agriculture, Western Australia
This book has been written to help farmers reach their rainfall-limited yield potential. It comes from a need to understand the properties and management options for grain production on sandplain soils. It also seeks to address concerns that crop yields on sandplain soils are not ... Read more
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Pasture condition guide for the Ord River Catchment
K Ryan, E Tierney, and P Novelly
This guide has been produced as a tool for assessing pasture condition over a range of pasture types in the Ord River catchment. A pasture type is a distinctive mix of plant species, soil type and landscape position. For example, the Mitchell Grass Alluvial Plain ... Read more
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Report on polyacrylamide, a practice to reduce sediment and insoluable chemicals in tailwater
Tara Slaven
The main barrier to the adoption of PAM seems to the timing of the cost of outlay. This could add significantly to the initial crop establishment costs at a time of year when rowers receive no income. However, the partial and parametric analysis indicates that ... Read more
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Skeleton weed in Western Australia, pocket guide
State Skeleton Weed Committee; Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia; and Agriculture Protection Board
The Skeleton Weed Program is a coordinated approach to eradicating skeleton weed in Western Australia. It is run jointly by the State Skeleton Weed Committee, the Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Protection Board. It is funded through the skeleton weed levy collected from grain ... Read more
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Soil acidity : a guide for WA farmers and consultants
Chris Gazey and Stephen Davies
Soil acidity: a guide for WA farmers and consultants provides all the necessary information for effective management and understanding of soil acidity in a user-friendly handbook including many examples, diagrams and photographs.
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Soil pH in northern and southern areas of the WA wheatbelt
Chris Gazey and Joel Andrew
More than 80% of the topsoils sampled fall below the critical surface pHCaCl2 of 5.5 in the northern and southern wheatbelt study areas, with more in the south than the north. These results confirm soil acidity is a serious concern throughout the WA wheatbelt when ... Read more
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Survey of Western Australian agricultural lime sources
Chris Gazey and Dave Gartner
As a service to WA wheatbelt farmers, to assist with cost effective management of soil acidity, a survey of agricultural lime availability and quality was conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia.
The quality of agricultural lime surveyed varied widely between pits. ... Read more
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Vegetable growing : a guide for home gardeners in Western Australia
Department of Agriculture, Western Australia
DAFWAs popular publication about vegetable growing for home gardeners.
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Wheat variety guide 2009 Western Australia
Ben Curtis, Steve Penny, Christine Zaicou, Harmohinder Dhammu, Sarah Ellis, Dorthe Jorgensen, Shahajahan Miyan, Brenda Shackley, and Darshan Sharma
This guide summarises performance characteristics of commercially available wheats which have undergone testing in the National Variety Testing Project (NVT), breeding organisations crop variety testing and Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) variety specific agronomy projects. This information includes variety summaries, agronomic, disease and herbicide ... Read more
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Climate change, vulnerability and adaptation for south-west Western Australia: Phase one of action 5.5, Western Australian Greenhouse Strategy
Luke Morgan, Jo Anne Molin, Ross George, Richard McKellar, and Janet Conte
This report outlines preliminary findings about the impacts of climate changes that occurred during 1975 to 2005 on the South West’s people, its economy and natural ecosystems. The report focuses on vulnerability and adaptation, identifying useful pointers for future work, particularly in relation to how ... Read more
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Compost production and use in horticulture
Bob Paulin and Peter O'Malley
Maintaining and improving soil organic carbon levels is becoming an increasingly important aspect of modern farming. Compost provides potentially one of the most effective ways of applying organic matter to soils and improving organic carbon levels.
Improving soil organic carbon is directly related to soil ... Read more
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Greenhouse roses for cutflower production
Aileen Reid
Roses can be one of the more profitable flower crops to grow, but also one of the most difficult. Intensive, on-going management is necessary to obtain quality flowers.
The number of rose growers in Western Australia has declined. Many older growers have retired and are ... Read more
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Lime for high rainfall pastures: above 800mm average annual rainfall
Mike Bolland and Bill Russell
Conventional agriculture acidifies soil. As your soil becomes more acid, productive pasture species disappear and are replaced by species of low agricultural value. It is a waste of money to apply expensive fertiliser to pastures which are inherently poorly productive because they are growing in ... Read more
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Pollen from Western Australia at a glance
Rob Manning
Western Australian pollen proteins are high compared to many other plant species. Banksia pollens are highest at greater than 30% followed by eucalypt and acacia, which range from 20-28%.
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Producing lupins
Peter White, Bob French, Amelia McLarty, and Grains Research and Development Corporation
The book contains detailed information on lupin establishment, weed control, disease management and harvesting. It also provides an excellent background to the history of lupins in Western Australia, the development of the plant and its adaptation to the Western Australian environment
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Root disease under intensive cereal production systems
Bill MacLeod, Vivien Vanstone, Ravjit Khangura, and Ciara Beard
This Bulletin describes symptoms and control methods for the most commonly encountered cereal root diseases in Western Australia:
- rhizoctonia bare patch
- root lesion nematode
- take-all
- fusarium crown rot
- cereal cyst nematode
- common root rot ... Read more
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Southern weeds and their control
John Moore and Judy Wheeler
This booklet provides easy identification of common weeds and methods of control using common cultural, biological and herbicidal control techniques. The weeds are divided into four colour coded groups based on their lifeform and are grasses, herbs, vines and shrubs or trees. Within each group, ... Read more
