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Kate Leahy
Senior Consultant
Since joining Cox Inall in 2007, Kate has worked on a range of Government and Agribusiness projects for clients wanting to engage with rural and...
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Belinda Toward
Senior Consultant
Belinda Toward has strong experience in both business to consumer and business to business communications, with expertise in technology, retail and...
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Angela Jackson
Senior Consultant
Angela Jackson joined Cox Inall in 2005 and brings 18 years of broad communications experience to the agency.
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Rachel Bowman
Senior Consultant
Rachel has extensive experience leading campaigns linking primary producers with the latest research and development information.
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Justine Mackay
Senior Consultant
Justine Mackay joined Cox Inall in July 2011 and has an extensive background in communications, stakeholder management, public relations and...
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Sally Fraser
Group Account Director
Sally Fraser has over 20 years’ experience as a journalist and public relations professional in finance, retail, transport and logistics,...
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Abigail Hempfling
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Abby Hempfling is a media relations specialist with experience in the finance, retail, food, government and telecommunications sectors.
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Penny Rose
Senior Consultant
Penny Rose has pursued a diverse international public relations career, bringing to Cox Inall Communications almost 10 years’ marketing and public...
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Lucy Broad
Director
Lucy Broad has more than 20 years experience as a journalist and broadcaster, extensive relationships with the Australian media and a wide network of...
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Ellen McNamara
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Ellen McNamara joined Cox Inall Communications in August 2011 as a member of the Agribusiness and Natural Resources team. She has worked in the...
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Alyce Cowan
Associate Consultant
Alyce Cowan brings exceptional communication skills, organisational abilities and writing skills to the Cox Inall team.
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Natalie Lee
Senior Consultant
Natalie Lee has been working with Cox Inall Communications since 2009, acting as Western Region Communicator for the Grains Research and Development...
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Michael Thomson
Senior Consultant
Michael Thomson brings more than 10 years of experience as a rural and political journalist, as well as multimedia skills as a former national online...
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Suzanne Lewis
Senior Consultant
A rural issues specialist, Suzanne is skilled in effectively communicating the developments in primary industry production across relevant target...
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Angus Rutherford
Consultant
Angus joined Cox Inall in August 2010 and is a member of the Agribusiness and Natural Resources team. He provides support across clients such as...
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Kaaren Latham
Senior Consultant
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Tim Powell
Managing Director
Tim has 25 years’ experience working in journalism, politics, public affairs and marketing, and remains a hands-on consultant working on specific...
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May 21, 2012
admin
Canola cultivars and management practices that contribute to rapid early growth are the key to high yields in WA’s high rainfall cropping zone, according to new results from a three-year research project.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and CSIRO are co-funding the research by Perth-based CSIRO senior research scientist, Dr Heping Zhang.
The area is expected to play an important role in future growth in grain production and high rainfall zone research includes trial sites near Kojonup run in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) and members of the Kojonup Crop Research Group.
“CSIRO has been interacting with canola breeders from WA and across Australia to provide information on plant physiology and development traits that are associated with high yield in the high rainfall environment of south western WA,” Dr Zhang said.
“Just like in other regions, rapid early growth is important. Differences established early in the season are carried through to flowering and are eventually reflected in crop yield.”
Dr Zhang says this holds true whether the focus is on variety choice or agronomic management decisions such as fertiliser or seeding rate.
“Importantly, while increasing inputs provided significant yield benefit in good years, it did not penalise the crop in bad years as canola has that flexibility,” he said.
“Of course, in bad years there was no return on the additional investment in the higher inputs.”
Dr Zhang says varieties that had higher early growth rates, such as hybrids, or which matured later also gave a significant yield benefit in good years.
“As for management inputs, while these choices did not express their higher yield potential in dry years, at least they did not result in a yield penalty.”
Researchers now aim to use the results of the field experiments to test the APSIM canola model.
This will allow the results to be extended across a number of soil types and locations within the region. Importantly, it will also help growers and researchers know what to expect in terms of year-to-year variation.
“We think there is a big need for more research to improve the management of canola across all of regions of WA, especially with the increasing diversity of new varieties becoming available,” Dr Zhang said.
For more information, visit www.grdc.com.au/hrz.
ENDS
GRDC project code: CSP00128
Media releases can be found at www.grdc.com.au/media
Contact:
Rachel Bowman
Cox Inall Communications
0412 290 673