Explanatory Notes for the Farming Practices data gathering Initiative.

Why:

Please help your industry to:

• FILL THE NEED FOR INFORMATION
  (There is little data to show progress for the industry, especially to show sustainability)
• SEE HOW YOUR FARMING SYSTEM COMPARES.
  (Allows you to get an environmental and productivity report calculated from your farming practices – and shows how your farm ‘looks’ compared to others in your region)
• ASSIST GRDC
  (By providing some information about your farm GRDC will be better able to target research and better tailor communications to your needs)

Farming Practices have changed dramatically in the last two decades.  Today’s practices have led to improvements in productivity and environmental effects.

The Grains industry is continuing to invest in the development of more sustainable farming systems. This can most effectively be done with knowledge of the farming practices in use and how these have changed in recent times. To gather this information the GRDC and the Grains Council of Australia have established a Farming Practices Database for your use.

This initiative not only tracks the levels of various practices around Australia, but also provides something for you.

Enter your data via the form and you will receive a report back

• Water use efficiency data
• Fertilizer use efficiency data for both phosphorus and nitrogen
• Crop yields
• Crop rotation
• Areas of pasture and native vegetation, compared to the wider region
• Area of soil susceptible to erosion, salinity
• Basic soil parameters, like water holding capacity, pH, organic carbon
• Fuel use on a per hectare of crop basis
• Greenhouse Gas emission profile

How to fill in the data form

Page one consists of some explanatory notes.

At the bottom of the page is an area where you can enter your GRDC identification number, if you know this. 

This number can be found on the address sheet in any “Ground Cover” magazine sent you, usually a series of numbers above you name on this sheet. 

If you cannot find this, then leave the field blank.

Page Two:

1. You may have already received a reference number from the database, if you gave us a slip of paper at a GRDC Update or if you have contacted us to have the dataform sent to you.  If so put it in here, if not leave blank.
2. NGR or CBH Number:  If you have a NGR card (or CBH in WA) enter this number here.  It will assist with future Quality Assurance or Traceability needs, if these emerge in the market place, so saving potentially more paperwork at that time
3. Your name, email address (if we do not already have this), fax and phone numbers etc.
4. Your locality and postcode:  These assist to place where your farm is, and so find the best comparative data to use for comparative analyses.
5. Shire Name:  It is important to accurately place your property in the correct shire, since this also allows the appropriate comparative data to be accessed.  We know that many farms are split across more than one shire, and many landholders have more than one property, with these also potentially in more than one shire.
   We aim to provide comparative and amalgamated data based on our total holding, and os the best way to look at the data needs for this table is to consider your total holding(s), and estimate how much of this total is in the shire(s).  For example if you hold two farms, one of 1200ha and one of 1400ha, with both of these in the one shire, then simply enter both farm nomes and allocate 100% to both in the shire.  If the properties were in separate shires, then list both farm names, again with 100% allocated to their appropriate shires.  However, if the shire boundary passed through the second farm, with (about) 700ha in one shire and 700ha in another, then you would allocate Property name 1  with 100% in it’s shire, and property 2 would have 50% allocated to both the shires it is in.
6. NRM:  This refers to the Natural Resource Management body your farm(s) is in.  NRM Bodies are known as Catchment management Authorities in NSW and Victoria, Regional Groups in Qld, Catchment Boards in SA and Catchment Councils in WA. As per the last question, you can estimate how much of your holding lies in the NRM Body (if you know which one you are in), or if you know your holding is split across two then estimate a percentage.  If you do not know which NRM Body you are in, then leave it blank, and based on your shire and (see later) latitude and longitude, we can find whish one inside the database.
   It is important for us to be able to place your holding in the correct NRM Body area, since we aim to provide amalgamated data (that is your farm data plus all others in the NRM area) to NRM Bodies to show progress and status in levels of various farming practices for them.  This is one of the aims of this initiative, and should remove much need for NRM Bodies to gather data from farmers in their catchments.
7. Name of Farm:  The name you wish the farm to be known as.
8. GPS:  If you know the latitude and longitude of your farm, then this will assist greatly with allocating your data to the correct shire and NRM body.  Simply provide coordinates for about the middle of your total holding.
9. What type of farm is this?. Tick for each one that applies to your holding
10. Name of Nearest Rainfall Station:  If you know the nearest Bureau of Meteorology Rainfall station, then this can assist where we do not get rainfall data for your farm.  We have all BoM station rain, temperature and evaporation data and this assists in calculating water use efficiency for crops.
11. Actual Rainfall Figures for this year:  If you have your rainfall data (total in mm for each month), enter these, if not we will use BoM data from the nearest station
12. Farm Records:  If you use farm record keeping software, then tick this box.  Common products include Paddock Action Manager (PAM), Back Paddock, Crop Facts, Phoenix, AgriMaster and others.  We are working with some software companies to find simple ways for farmers to upload data to the database, and so avoid filling in forms each year.
13. Where do you obtain your agronomic advice:  It is now common for grain producers to retain the services of a professional advisor, or use other sources of advise from agronomists or other places.  We are interested in how valuable some of these sources of information are, and so ask that you estimate what value you get from various sources of information on a percentage basis.  For example if you feel you get about 80% value or usefulness from your agronomist then put 80 in the box next to that agronomist type, and the remaining 20 wherever you feel appropriate.
14. Have you attended any training or workshops this year:  This is about trying to get some estimate of the amount of training and learning is occurring in the industry.  We know there are many activities provided, both formally and informally, and these data can assist with showing the industry and farmers as professional and continuing to learn in order to better operate their farms and businesses.  We are also looking to get some idea of how useful the various types of activities are, and so ask for a rating for these.
15. List any farm groups or other groups that you belong to:  Many farmers are members of Farming Systems, Grain and Graze, Conservation Farming, No-Till, LandCare or many other groups.  We are working with many of these to provide data to them (again to assist with minimizing duplication of surveys), and so knowing which (if any) groups you are member of will assist us in doing this.  Many of these groups are actively collaborating with our database, and so you may have had a dataform sent to you from them.

Page Three:

16. Year for the data in this form:  We are looking to gather data for crop year, and, while this varies (especially in the northern region), we have settled on a calendar year for most crop data.
17. AREAS:  This section is where we gather fundamental information about your holding, in Hectares.  If you only know details in acres, then divide by 2.471 to get hectares.
18. Area of Holding: total area of your holding(s) totaled.  If you have more than one farm, consider adding these together for a single figure here.
19. Area of Crop – Dryland:  Area you cropped (rainfed) in the year listed above (for example in 2007).
20. Area of Crop – Irrigated: As above, but given many irrigated crops are planted in spring and harvested in the new year, estimate how much irrigated crop you had in the year ending Dec.  More detail on planting and harvest dates will be entered later.
21. Area of Pasture (improved and unimproved in total):  Area of pastures on your holding, both improved (i.e. sown to improved species like clover, Lucerne, perennial grasses), plus those pastures that are unimproved, or ‘native’ area that are grazed.
22. Area of Native and/or Remnant Vegetation:  This may simply be the ‘remainder’ of the holding that is not cropped or grazed, mainly native trees and other vegetation.
23. Area of Fallow – Tillage:  The estimated area of cultivated fallow in the year of interest.  This may be what was pasture at the beginning of the year and then became fallow (for example in southern region), or how much was neither cropped now grazed, but left as fallow for moisture storage in the profile in the northern region.
24. Area of Fallow – Spray Topped:  Area (mostly will be pasture) spray topped to prevent annual seed set.  This will be a lower herbicide use than the next question, and will be more common in WA and the southern region.
25. Area of Fallow – Chemical Fallow:  Area, similar to the first Fallow question, but commenced and often maintained with herbicide, in the south often commenced in the spring, in the north will commonly be no-till fallow areas, in preparation for the next crop.
26. Area of Green Manure:  For those who either plant a specific crop (often a forage legume or pulse based mix) and then plough into soil in spring (mainly used in south and western regions).  Is often carried out for control of weeds, input of soil nitrogen and for disease break.
27. Area of Brown Manure:  As above, however, instead of ploughing into soil the paddock is sprayed with a knock down herbicide so the crop / pasture is left on the soil surface after being sprayed.
28. CROPPING Data table:  This table is for use in showing average crop performance and data for your farm for the year of interest.  We have used drop down boxes in many of the fields to try and assist.
    Basically we are looking for some information about the main crops you grew in the year, basically when (on average) they were planted, harvested and how many hectares of the crop did you have.
    If some crop was planted but not harvested (i.e. failed, was grazed out or cut for hay) then this will be apparent by the differences in the areas planted and harvested, and also can be shown in the drop down, for example, for ‘cereals – cut for hay’ box.
    For grain giving an average protein (if known) will assist with nitrogen use calculations, and for oilseeds % oil likewise.
    The data for crop yield is basically your estimate of the average crop yield for all of the crop type, for example estimate the average yield (and protein) for you wheat, same for barley, etc.
29. Length of Fallow prior to planting (for each crop this is applicable to) is you estimate of how long the fallow period (that is time where weeds were controlled, in aiming for moisture storage etc. prior to planting the crop.  This assists (especially in the northern region) with rain use efficiency.
    
    In the southern and western the estimated date of the ‘break’ will do much the same.

Page Four:

30. TILLAGE PRACTICES: This is relatively self-explanatory, and asks for your estimate of how much you farm using zero, no-till or other practices.  Many farms have a mix of these for various reasons, and this data assists greatly to better see how what level of these practices are in use, and how the season or region effects these.
    Zero Tillage is frequently where planting is with a disced implement giving very little soil movement at all. 
    No-Tillage is often with a knife point.  Direct drill usually refers to a single pass with a ‘full cut’ implement.
    
    There is also a field allowing you to comment if you want, often giving your circumstances that make this practice useful to you.


31. STUBBLE PRACTICES (Hectares (Ha)):  These fields are pretty self-explanatory.  However, ‘Stubble Retained Intact at Planting’ means very little of no grazing of stubbles, while ‘Not Standing’ includes stubble that is still present (eg Slashed / Mulched / Incorporated). ‘Late Burn’ can also be called ‘cool burn’ and refers to stubble that is burnt late, often just prior to planting and is usually a very incomplete burn of the stubble present, allowing machinery to get through very heavy stubble.  ‘Hot Burn’ is where stubble is burnt earlier in the late summer or early autumn (southern and western) and removes all or the great majority of stubble, with a hot fire.  ‘Stubble Other Stubble Raking and Windrow Burning’ is now being used in some circumstances (esp in WA and southern region) for example with canola stubbles or where windrows of chaff are left at harvest, and removes by fire stubble in rows where heavy, while leaving the inter-row between windrows with stubble.  It is frequently done for weed seed control. ‘Stubble Baled’ usually refers to stubble that is removed by baling after harvest, and removed form the paddock in large bales.  Some short stubble remains attached to soil.
    
    Again a comment field is included.
    
    
32. FERTILISER USAGE - CROPPING This table simply asks for total tonnes and areas of fertiliser products used in the cropping program.  Whilst it would be more desirable to consider fertilizer use on a paddock-by-paddock basis, this would complicate the data collection activity, and at this stage, we can make valuable use of farm-based figures. 
    Again, there are some drop down boxes that hold several of the common fertilizer products used, but you are able to type whatever product you use if it is not listed.  Just select the product that you use, or if it not listed, select any product then delete and type in the product you use.
33. Type of Application: This list allows you to pick from common uses such as ‘at drilling’ meaning placed with the seed or near the seed in the same operations when the crop was planted.  The terms ‘1st dressing’ and ‘2nd dressing’ are a compromise but basically refer to the practice of early additional applications of fertilizer to the crop after it has emerged (1st dressing) usually before the early to mid-tillering stage (or similar in broadleaf crops) in cereals.  ‘2nd dressing’ refers to additional applications for fertiliser (commonly nitrogen based products) applied at the late tillering, or later stage of cereals.
34. In this table we are looking for tones of product use don the farm in total, and then the total hectares this was applied to.
35. FERTILISER USAGE – PASTURE:  Similar to the previous section for crops, the interest is in the fertilizer applied (in general) to the pastures of the holding.  In many cases no fertilizer is applied to pastures, in some cases some is applied to some pastures and in some cases some is applied to all pastures.  An estimate of total fertiliser bought and applied to pastures is all that is required for this section.  Tonnes and areas of fertiliser products used.
36. SOIL CONDITIONERS:  In some areas soil conditioners are used to assist with soil properties.  Common products used are lime and gypsum.  Knowing the use of these allows an ability to show efforts in improving some soil properties that are important for sustainability.  Again, the data sought is in tonnes used and the total hectares it was applied to.

Page Five:

37. SOIL TESTING:  basically this section assist in showing how producers are managing their soil fertility based on testing.  Simply estimate how many hectares the paddocks you tested this year total, and enter how often you do soil tests (annually, two years etc)
38. Organic carbon (%) from last soil test:  This is to assist with getting some information on soil carbon levels in grain farms around Australia.  Most soil tests (especially shallow 0-10cm) will give a result for % soil carbon.  Simply make an estimate of what the average soil carbon for your cropping paddocks is from soils tests results you may have at hand.  If you do not have a figure for soil carbon, then leave this field blank.
39. Pesticides/Herbicides:  It is very difficult to gather information about pesticide and herbicide use on farms, without getting to paddock level.  This is considered too complex at this stage, and so we have focused on a small number of products that seem to be of interest.
    In considering that we are unable to gather paddock-based data on pesticide and herbicide use, some data on general amounts used and stored is what is asked.  Simply estimate how much of the products listed in the drop down box(es) you used this year, and then estimate how much may be held on-hand.
40. Shielded sprayers for agricultural chemical application: In some areas farmers are using shielded sprayers and wider rows to manage weeds and diseases.  Estimate how many hectares you have used such sprayers on.
41. Banded sprayers for agricultural chemical application:  As per the last question, some farmers are using banded sprayers to apply products in narrow bands.
42. When did you most recently do farm chemical training.(Year):  In most states it is now a requirement to undertake chemical training at regular intervals.  List the year you most recently di such training.  This assists with showing that farmers are fulfilling their roles in responsible chemical application.
43. Estimated average quantity of farm chemicals stored on farm at any one time.(surplus to usage):  There is a perception that farmers are storing large amounts of chemicals on-farm, though commonly most will only hold chemicals surplus to usage.  Estimate how much chemical you have in the chemical store through the year, generally this will be left over stocks.
44. Fuel Use: This question asks you to estimate how much fuel is used in the cropping program through the year.  This assists with estimating greenhouse gas emissions levels, and so is an important figure to have.  An estimate to the nearest thousand litres would be accurate enough.

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45. Precision Agriculture:  There is currently little or no data about the adoption levels of precision agriculture nationally, aside form some localized surveys.  The adoption rates of one or more elements of precision agriculture are thought to be rapid, so this data will assist greatly with understanding how much is occurring, and where.  The requirement is for the amount of hectares you use one or more of the PA choices shown.
46. Integrated Pest Management:  There are many elements to integrated pest management, and many farmers consider some of these in managing their pests and weeds.  Again, no data is available about these, and so this section has been included.
47. Surface Water Management:  If applicable, please list Ha on your farm with contour banks, contour farming, other earth works or measures to minimise water erosion.
48. Livestock:  Given that many grain producers are also livestock farmers, these figures will be important to include for many reasons.  We are basically looking to the numbers of cattle or cheep that you run, as an average through the year, and also how many are turned off the property this year.  These figures can also assist with estimating greenhouse gas emissions.
49. Estimate of average stocking rate animals per ha on areas grazed:  This allows you to estimate your stocking rate across the farm for the year.
50. Ground Cover:  This is one of the most useful measurements for environmental assessment, but can be difficult to estimate.  We would like to provide pictures of what constitutes the various %’s of ground cover, though these would increase the size of the data from substantially, and would require a separate set of pictures for the various regions around the country.  Instead we ask you to estimate as best you can how many hectares you feel fall in the categories listed.
    The accepted time of year where soil is seen as most vulnerable is the end of summer / autumn, though again this varies with region.  We ask you to estimate how much soil cover is present across the farm by category, in autumn.
51. Salinity: Your assessment of the amount of salt affected land on your farm in Hectares by the various categories shown.

Page Seven

52. Native Vegetation:  This asks for your assessment of the quality of Native Vegetation on your farm and an estimate of the hectares of these.
53. Pastures:  Not all farms have the categories listed here, and so you only need to consider those that apply to you. 
    Annual pastures are often annual clover or medic, or volunteer grasses, perennial pastures are often sown with grasses like phalaris, perennial ryegrass, etc.  Permanent Shrubs or forage species are used on some properties, for example saltbush.  Perennial Phased Pastures often consists of cropped land with rotations that include a perennial pasture.  Tree crops are used by some graziers. 
    Improved Pasture may be the same as annual pastures where improved species have been planted or where such species regrow, and so the same area will often be entered for both ‘annual’ and ‘improved pastures’.
    Unimproved Pasture will normally be pastures or grazed area where no introduced species have been planted.
54. Area of property you have revegetated (eg tree planting, natural regrowth):  This is an estimate of how many hectares you have revegetated in the year, planted trees or shrubs in etc.
55. Area of property fenced off, or stock excluded from, to protect remnant or revegetated areas.
56. Area fenced off to protect waterways and riparian areas.
57. Area that may be used for future biomass crops / tree crops:  Some farmers are considering plantations of trees or other crops for carbon sequestration, biomass production that may go into ethanol production or similar.
58. Number of people and ages working on the farm:  This information will assist the industry to get a better understanding on how many people are ‘dependant’ on grain production for income, and how important off-farm income is.