Yield and N estimation for dryland cropping

A user-friendly decision support aid to calculate yield and nitrogen requirements of cereals and canola

Potential yields are defined by the amount of water made available to a crop. However, actual yield is often constrained by factors such as inadequate nutrition, disease or subsoil constraints dryland agriculture in southern Australia. The balance between availability of water and nitrogen has been shown to impact significantly on yield, grain quality and efficient use of resources.

To help farmers achieve this balance, a simple spreadsheet model was developed for estimating potential yield and nitrogen fertiliser requirements.

The model is available in two versions:

• The Generic Calculator is a more general version based on user inputs of growing season rainfall
• Your Soil's Potential Calculator is more automated and designed only for low rainfall situations (<500mm annual rainfall) and estimates water limited potential grain yields and the nitrogen fertiliser requirements. The calculator previously labelled as the Mallee Calculator is equivalent to this form of the calculator.

The model is an outcome of a series of GRDC funded projects (CSO198, CSO209, CSO212, MF001).
The model is available at no cost to the user and can be downloaded using the links below.

Downloadable Material