Understanding biological farming inputs - WA Soil Knowledge Base

Skip to main content

Home
About
Soil attributes
Explore an underground world

Learn about what’s going in soil and why.
Understand soil properties and processes

The Soil attributes section contains information on different topics within soil biology, physics or chemistry. Pages within these topics present an overview of the current state of knowledge, explain the principles and properties of different soil attributes, and highlight insights from research and resources like case studies. Resources are suggested throughout these Pages.
- View all soil attributes
Soil management
Looking after soil for long-term sustainability

Protecting and conserving a critical resource.
Discover and apply best practice soil management

Soil management focuses on practical advice and guidelines to improve soil management. This information discusses how soil management integrates into different farming systems and considers different options that may be available to improve soil quality. Resources are linked throughout Soil Management pages.
- View all Soil management
- Controlled traffic farming
- Strategic tillage
- Soil amendments
- Agricultural lime
- Fertiliser
Soil analysis & testing
Dig deeper with analytical insights and data

Support better decision making and create value with soil monitoring and testing.
Learn how soil testing and monitoring can unlock potential

Soil analysis & testing provides information on how soil attributes and properties are measured and tested, as well as guidance on how to analyse and interpret soil test results and set up soil sampling and monitoring.
- View all Soil analysis and testing
- Soil sampling
- Soil groups
- Testing soil colour
- Testing soil texture
- Testing soil structure
- Testing soil nutrients
- Identifying soil constraints
- Measuring soil organic carbon
- Understanding trial results and on-farm experimentation
Resources
Curated collection of high-quality, evidence-based soil information

The knowledge you need, all in one place.
Explore our collection of videos, case studies, fact sheets, tools, journal articles, links and more.

The Resources section lets user explore and access a curated selection of additional resources for soil information and management. These Resources can be searched, and filtered by topic(s), format, date, and organisation so you can find what you’re looking for, or discover something new.
- Videos
- Case studies
- Fact sheets
- Reports
- Journal articles
- Tools
- External links
- Books
- Ebooks
- View all

Date

2017/02/07

Link

Link: GRDC Update paper

Organisations

CSIRO

The University of Western Australia

GRDC

Authors

Mark Farrell

Lynne M Macdonald

Mike Webb

Mike Wong

Sasha Jenkins

Lyn Abbott

Take home messages

It is difficult to make generalisations or predictions as to potential performance of biological amendments due to wide variability in chemical composition between and within classes (based on assessment of greater than 80 amendments).
This project has investigated the chemical variability and performance (pot and field) across a range of biological amendment classes (biostimulants, humates, organic amendments, alternative fertilisers).
No single amendment or amendment class consistently performed better than district practice fertiliser treatments across eight field trials established in 2015. Results from 2016 will provide an opportunity to assess cumulative effects under a more favourable rainfall season.
On-farm testing of amendments across a decile range is required in order to understand which amendments have more potential in supporting productivity under variable environments and associated stresses.