Digging into Tasmanian soils

The 2023 Soil CRC Participants Conference concluded with three jam-packed field trips focused on soil management issues in northern Tasmania. Delegates elected to hop on a bus and head on one of three tours.

“The field trips were a great opportunity to highlight the challenges and opportunities for soils in northern Tasmania and showcase some of the exciting work happening in the Soil CRC,” said field trip organiser and Soil CRC Program Leader, Associate Professor Richard Doyle from the University of Tasmania.

Launceston environs soil health trials

The first tour was skilfully facilitated by Maria Ortiz from the Tas Farm Innovation Hub. The bus set off to Hagley where attendees inspected Southern Farming Systems’ impressive field sites, heard about a cereal waterlogging trial and soil moisture monitoring for cereal production, and witnessed a demonstration of Soil CRC’s promising Lab-on-a-Chip technology.

The tour ended with a visit to Van Dieman Brewing in Evandale, where owner Will Tatchell spoke about ‘ground-to-glass’ brewing and the benefits and challenges of cultivating all ingredients on site.

Midlands soils and irrigated landscapes

The second tour was led by Dr Marcus Hardie and Tony Kerstan from the University of Tasmania. This tour covered the Midlands landscape through Tunbridge and Ross, where attendees examined key irrigation soils enroute, including Campbell Town.

Ian Davies from Herbert Cane Productivity Services attended the tour and was impressed by the Annandale Dairy Farm operations in Tunbridge and the knowledge shared by farmer Richard Gardner. “[Richard] was forward thinking, valued data to make informed decisions, was very tech savvy and fully understood the interactions between the pasture, soils, water inputs and milk production,” Ian said.

Other tour highlights included demonstrations of another two Soil CRC research outputs, the BILBY® (soil sensor node) and the Infiltrometer (in-field water infiltration measurement).

Northwest coast soil and landscape health

Dr Shane Powell from University of Tasmania and Sue Hinton from the Tas Farm Innovation Hub led the final tour, which looked at a Red Ferrosol soil pit, soil biology and food production. Tour highlights included a stop at Braddon’s Lookout to get a bird’s eye view of the local landscape and a visit to the University of Tasmania’s Forthside Vegetable Research Station, where attendees observed and discussed a long‐term soil biological trial site looking at multi-species cover crops.

The Soil CRC acknowledges the work of the field trip organising committee led by Associate Professor Richard Doyle (University of Tasmania). We thank everyone involved and look forward to delivering more insightful field trips at our next Participants Conference.