The 2023-24 season will be remembered as a very rewarding season with district yields averaging a record 12.2 b/ha with around 1 million bales produced in southern NSW.

The majority of the crop is the bold medium grain type called V071, which has averaged 13T / ha across the whole MIA – an outstanding effort by growers.

Listen in to hear more on the yield and quality this year along with more information about Rice Extension's focus sites.

Given water is a critical resource for food production in Australia — and the Riverina in particular — practices for increasing drought resilience are of great importance.

This is why deficit irrigation strategies have been designed for many crops to maximise productivity with reduced irrigation water.

In almonds, these strategies have been mostly designed for loamy soils, often based on a percentage reduction of the potential water use of plants.

So, how do you optimise water management in young almond orchards with heavy soil typical of the Riverina?

To answer the question, a summer deficit irrigation strategy to grow almond trees with less water was tested in three-year-old trees of Shasta and Nonpareil varieties.

Listen in to hear more about the trial.

In 2022, two trials were conducted to investigate canopy and lodging management in irrigated barley at Whitton and irrigated durum wheat at Darlington Point as part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains project, funded by the Grain Research and Development Corporation.

Focus paddocks provided an opportunity to run these trials to investigate crop production issues raised by local growers.

The trials looked at the influence of fertiliser, variety and plant growth regulators, or PGRs, on cereal crops and the influence these had on yield and standability.

This episode is part of the Area Wide Management of Weeds Project.

Glyphosate is used by many land managers to control weeds.

When land managers rely on glyphosate for control of these weeds, the movement of glyphosate-resistant weeds between locations can create problems …

This episode is part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains Project which has been funded by the Grains Research & Development Corporation.

.As part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains a number of trials were undertaken in region. In 2022, a local trial was undertaken in the Darlington Point area, which assessed the impact of nitrogen rates in durum wheat.

This episode is part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains Project which has been funded by the Grains Research & Development Corporation.

.As part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains a number of trials were undertaken in region. In 2020 a trial in the Whitton area looked at the impact of disease and inoculation in irrigated chickpeas.

One of the newest projects that IREC are involved in is the Cool Soil Initiative. The Cool Soil Initiative is all about supporting farmers explore their on-farm practices in order to improve the health of their soil, increase their yield, and reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions.

This episode is part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains Project which has been funded by the Grains Research & Development Corporation.

As part of this project IREC have facilitated a number of focus paddock trials and demonstrations over the past few years. The aim of this focus paddock trial was to determine the fit for Plant Growth Regulators on durum wheat sown in a double cropping scenario behind cotton.

This episode is part of the Optimising Irrigated Grains Project which has been funded by the Grains Research & Development Corporation.

As part of this project IREC has facilitated a number of focus paddock trials and demonstrations over the past few years. The purpose of this focus paddock trial was to assess the influence of Plant Growth Regulants and nitrogen rates on the standability, head loss and yield of an irrigated barley crop.