Soil CRC | Webinars | CRC for High Performance Soils

Webinars

March 2023

Is adoption still meaningful for agricultural innovation?

In this presentation the Soil CRC’s Program Leader Dr Catherine Allan (CSU) chats to Pru Cook (Nine Creeks Consulting), about designing, delivering and measuring modern, complex extension programs.

This webinar was delivered by CSU’s Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub in March 2023 as part of their Expanded Horizons Webinar Series.

Find out more about the series

December 2021

Soil Carbon and Regenerative Agriculture

This presentation shares some of the findings from the Soil CRC project scientifically assessing outcomes from regenerative agriculture. Looking at carbon functionality and farm performances at sites across Australia.

Presented by Dr Gwen Grelet from Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research New Zealand

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 14 December, 2021.

Soil Health: Why it matters Panel Discussion

A panel discussion on soil health and why it matters. Panellists Lukas Van Zwieten, Richard Doyle, Kirsty Yeates and Jeff Edwards discuss some of the challenges around soil health, measuring it and keeping it.

Panellists
Lukas Van Zwieten, NSW Department of Primary Industries
Richard Doyle, University of Tasmania
Kirsty Yeates, Soils for Life
Jeff Edwards, farmer from the wheatbelt WA

This panel discussion was presented on Tuesday 7 December, 2021.

November 2021

Addressing complex soil constraints

Managing multiple soil constraints is difficult. This presentation looks at the research into addressing complex soil constraints with one solution, rather than many individual solutions.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Jason Condon, Charles Sturt University.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 9 November, 2021.

Presented by Dr Jason Condon

October 2021

Rewarding Soil Stewardship Panel Discussion

A discussion on the different approaches to rewarding soil stewardship facilitated by Catherine Allan of Charles Sturt University. What role do financial institutions play in rewarding soil stewardship? Will consumers pay more for good soil management?

Facilitated by Soil CRC Program Leader Associate Professor Catherine Allan, Charles Sturt University. Panellists include Professor Mark Morrison, Charles Sturt University and Dr Nick Pawsey, Charles Sturt University and Craig Carter, grazier.

This panel discussion was broadcast on Tuesday 26 October, 2021

New sensors for measuring soil

It is vital that farmers know the nutrient status of their soil. This presentation shares some of the research on the new technologies being developed to improve soil sensors.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Craig Lobsey, University of Southern Queensland.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 5 October, 2021

Presented by Dr Craig Lobsey

September 2021

Improving the performance of sandy soils

This presentation examines findings from a meta-analysis and literature review from the Soil CRC Project New amendments for sandy soils. This project proposes that step changes towards high performance sandy soils will come from permanently raising their reactive surface area, with added clay or recalcitrant organic matter or both.

Presented by Soil CRC Researcher Dr Amanda Schapel, Primary Industries & Regions South Australia (PIRSA).

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 21 September, 2021

Presented by Dr Amanda Schapel

New products for subsoil constraints

Subsoil constraints have been traditionally difficult to manage. They limit water storage capacity and nutrient absorption which can result in a drop in crop productivity. This presentation will focus on the development of innovative products to address subsoil constraints.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Ehsan Tavakkoli, NSW Department of Primary Industries.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 7 September, 2021

Presented by Dr Ehsan Tavakkoli

August 2021

Soil Data and the National Soil Strategy Panel Discussion

A key objective of the National Soil Strategy is to make Australian soil data more available. The Soil CRC’s Visualising Australasia’s Soils project, led by Peter Dahlhaus, is working to improve soil data availability to provide Australasian farmers, agronomists, researchers and agribusinesses with relevant soil data on demand. This panel discussion looks at the opportunities, challenges and complexities around soil data capture, storage and management.

Panellists:
Peter Dahlhaus – Soil CRC Project Leader, Federation University
Richard Doyle – Soil CRC Program 2 Leader, University of Tasmania
Jane McInnes – Project Officer, Riverine Plains
David Minkey – Executive Director, Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association

Facilitator:
Dr Michael Crawford, CEO of the Soil CRC.

This panel discussion was broadcast on Tuesday 17 August 2021.

Future Farmers: What drives their decision making?

Dr Hanabeth Luke shares the findings of extensive farmer surveys from three Australian farming regions – Wheatbelt WA, North Central Victoria and the Eyre Peninsula SA.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Hanabeth Luke, Southern Cross University.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 3 August 2021.

Presented by Dr Hanabeth Luke

July 2021

Lifting crop productivity on crushed limestone

Crops on highly calcareous soils have poor vigour and low water use efficiency. This presentation outlines the research from a project co-funded by the Soil CRC and GRDC working in conjunction with local farmer groups to overcome constraints in the topsoil and subsoil in calcareous soils in South Australia.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Nigel Wilhelm from Primary Industries and Regions, South Australia.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 20 July 2021.

Presented by Nigel Wilhelm

June 2021

The utilisation of clay as carriers for pesticide delivery

This presentation by Dr Yanju Liu of Newcastle University focuses on utilisation of clay minerals as carrier materials for pesticide delivery to minimise residue effects and improve cost-effectiveness of pesticide application. It looks at the characterisation and treatment of clays for pesticide delivery.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Yanju Liu from Newcastle University

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 15 June 2021

Presented by Dr Yanju Liu

December 2020

Soil biology: under the microscope

Farmers and scientists alike, recognise that soil biology is an important component in healthy soil. But selecting what to measure is confounding and analysing what the data really mean can be even more so. This presentation puts under the microscope some of the key methods for measuring ‘who’s there’ and ‘what are they doing.’ The methodologies are being applied to Soil CRC field trials to help us understand changes to soil biological properties and how these may more broadly benefit soil health.

Presented by Soil CRC Program Leader Dr Lukas Van Zwieten from NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Dr Lukas Van Zwieten leads Program 4.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 8 December 2020

Presented by Dr Lukas Van Zwieten

November 2020

Affordable rapid field based soil tests

An affordable field-based tool kit will be developed to obtain real-time analytical information about the soil chemical properties. Find out more about the design of 3D printed devices for the colourimetric determination of soil chemical properties.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Liang Wang from the University of Newcastle and Reuben Mah Han Yang from the University of Tasmania.

Dr Liang Wang leads the project Affordable rapid field based soil tests.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 24 November 2020.

Presented by Dr Liang Wang

Building farmer innovation capability

This presentation explores the application of a partnership model used to build innovation capability systems in large agribusinesses, to smaller farmer groups.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Associate Professor David Falepau from Charles Sturt University who led the project Building farmer innovation capability, and Phillip Guthrie – Innovations Leader at Birchip Cropping Group.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 10 November 2020.

Presented by Associate Professor David Falepau and Phillip Guthrie

October 2020

Evaluating soil functional resilience to compaction and drought stresses

This presentation focuses on assessment of a soil resistance and resilience approach as a measure of soil health and performance under environmental stresses such as compaction and drought.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Mehran Rezaei Rashti from Griffith University who leads the project Evaluating soil functional resilience.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 27 October 2020.

Presented by Dr Mehran Rezaei Rashti

Recovering nutrients from organic waste streams

This presentation examines the development of technologies to recover essential nutrients from organic waste streams such as poultry manure, pig manure, dairy farm wastes, sewage and industrial effluents. This will provide farmers with an efficient, cost-effective fertiliser solution.

Presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Dane Lamb, University of Newcastle who leads the project Recovering nutrients from organic waste streams.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 13 October 2020.

Presented by Dr Dane Lamb

September 2020

Caring for the Land: Farm care networks and adoptability of soil improvement techniques and practices

This presentation uses the theoretical lens of ‘care’ to explore different strategies for enhancing the adoptability of soil improvement practices. These include the (a) ‘hardening’ of local farming knowledge; (b) ‘softening’ of scientific knowledge and (c) facilitating mutual adjustment between farming and scientific ways of knowing through regional communities of practice that support farmers in interpreting soil data.

This webinar was presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Associate Professor Vaughan Higgins, University of Tasmania.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 22 September 2020.

Presented by Associate Professor Vaughan Higgins

Enhancing the representation of soil constraints in decision support systems

Decision support systems do not always represent all soil constraints. This presentation by Dr Keith Pembleton and Chloe Lai explains how the Soil CRC project is working to address this issue on existing DSS such as Gypsy.

This webinar was presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Keith Pembleton from University of Southern Queensland and Chloe Lai from University of Southern Queensland.

This webinar was presented on Thursday 10 September 2020.

Presented by Dr Keith Pembleton and Chloe Lai

August 2020

Developing an eNose for smelling soil

Find out about the connection between how we smell coffee and soil health. The Smelling soil project is developing an eNose as an affordable device to provide useful and usable information to growers to help them monitor their soil.

This webinar was presented by Soil CRC Project Leader Dr Shane Powell from the University of Tasmania and Dr Robert Hardy from the University of Tasmania.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday 25 August 2020.

Presented by Dr Shane Powell and Dr Robert Hardy

Evaluating alternative rhizobial carriers for improving soil performance

The presentation focuses on the assessment of locally available and low-cost organic, inorganic and biochar materials as promising alternative microbial carriers to peat for invention and commercialisation of novel rhizobium inoculants. More than 100 types of these materials have been analysed for the physico-chemical properties (e.g., surface properties and moisture retention moisture) and assessed for their suitability as rhizobial carriers.

Professor Chenrong Chen from Griffith University presents this webinar. Chen leads the Soil CRC project Evaluating alternative rhizobial carriers.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday August 11 2020.

Presented by Professor Chengrong Chen

July 2020

Impacts of liquid injection of biosolids on soil, plants and groundwater

Dr Aravind Surapaneni from South East Water and Associate Professor Matthew Currell from RMIT, will speak on the use of biosolids in the subsoil and what their trials have been showing. Aravind leads the Soil CRC project Application of liquid biosolids which has been conducting trials of subsoil injection of wastewater sludge at the Longwarry Water Recycling Plant in Victoria.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday July 28 2020.

Presented by Dr Aravind Surapaneni and Associate Professor Matthew Currell

Opportunities for activating consumer markets for good soil stewardship

Professor Mark Morrison from Charles Sturt University presents on the role of shifting markets in promoting good soil management. Mark is leading the Soil CRC project Understanding and promoting good soil stewardship which is exploring to the benefits to landholders who use good soil management practices.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday July 14 2020.

Presented by Professor Mark Morrison

June 2020

Herbicide residue in soils: when persistence doesn’t pay

What affect does herbicide residue in soils have on crop production? How long do some herbicides persist in soils? Presented by Dr Mick Rose from NSW Department of Primary Industries.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday June 30, 2020.

Presented by Dr Mick Rose

Why share your soil data? Soil data questions from the Visualising Australasia’s Soils project

Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus from Federation University Australia will present on soil data and the benefits of sharing it. Peter is the leader of the Soil CRC project Visualising Australasia’s soils which is establishing a federation of soil data from across Australia and New Zealand.

This webinar was presented on Tuesday June 16, 2020.

Presented by Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus

Conference Webinars

Program 1 – Overview and project updates

Overview – Investing in high performance soils – Associate Professor Catherine Allan, Charles Sturt University
Surveying farm practices – Dr Hanabeth Luke, Southern Cross University
Financially rewarding farmers for soil management – Dr Nick Pawsey, Charles Sturt University

Program 2 – Overview and project updates

Overview – Soil performance metrics – Associate Professor Richard Doyle, University of Tasmania
‘Smart’ soil sensors – Dr Marcus Hardie, University of Tasmania
New sensors for measuring soil nutrients – Dr Craig Lobsey, University of Southern Queensland

Program 3 – Overview and project updates

Overview – New products to increase fertility and function – Professor Nanthi Bolan, University of Newcastle
New products for subsoil constraints – Dr Ehsan Tavakkoli, NSW Department of Primary Industries
New amendments for sandy soils – Professor Richard Bell, Murdoch University

Program 4 – Overview and project updates

Overview – Integrated and precision soil management solutions – Dr Lukas Van Zwieten, NSW Department of Primary Industries
Plant based solutions to improve soil performance – Associate Professor Terry Rose, Southern Cross University
Regenerative Farming systems – Dr Gwen Grelet, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research NZ

Managing soils for high performance after drought

Brian Hughes, Primary Industries and Regions, SA.
Rebecca Mitchell, Agriculture Victoria