Can Spaded Chicken Manure improve Mallee Sands?
The Lowbank Agricultural Bureau was successful in securing an innovations grant through the SA MDB
NRM to look at improving the productivity of sand hills using chicken manure, which has become more
available and affordable due to the increase in chicken farms in the area.
In early April about 10 group members gathered to help spread manure at rates of 3 and 6 t/ha, along
with plots of high granular fertilizer and trace elements, clay spreading and deep ripping, as well as
some biological treatments. About half of the plots were spaded in to 40cm (which is like a big rotary
hoe) to try and give the cereal roots more of a reason to easily access and utilize deep moisture and
nutrients, as has been achieved in the New Horizons project at Karoonda.
There is also one plot that has about 12t/ha spaded, and another “Kitchen Sink” plot which is a
combination of almost all treatments, just to see what potential responses can be achieved. The project
expanded with the Bureaus Mallee Challenge grant to include plots of winery waste and grape marc.
Each farmer scale plot is 15m wide and runs for 400m, over two sand hills, through loamy soil as well,
and the trial is fully replicated. The site was EM38 mapped, which will allow for a better comparison of
yield results which should be analysed over the next five years to assess the long term benefits of each
treatment.
Moisture probes will help to monitor the depth of rainfall penetration and crop water use under various
treatments. The costs of treatments have generally been kept to a level that even with a 0.5t/ha yield
increase there will be a return on investment in 1, 2 or 3 years.
This is an exciting project, experiencing terrific support from the Lowbank Ag Bureau members, and is
expected to result in very practical findings that the farmers will be keen to act on if successful.
Spreading the Chicken Manure
Lowbank Ag Bureau members organizing the trial activities
Checking the Spading depth of approximately 40cm on the sand hill.