by Bill Crabtree, Agronomist
Aquifer soil wetter is proving its worth this season at our Quairading R&D site, where 4F Agronomist Bill Crabtree is measuring its impact on crop emergence in light, water-repellent soils after a late, dry May break.
Why Aquifer soil wetter matters when you are chasing a dry May break
It has been a delight to be working with Quairading farmers on the Ausplow-4Farmer R&D site. As I drive through the region I typically notice very good early weed control, while sheep farmers obviously valuing the green pick. But my feeling is that there are earlier sowing opportunities available.
With the old-fashioned fourth week of May break happening again, there are still great opportunities with the spasmodic and patchy autumn rains that could lift crop yields further. I know that fertiliser and diesel supply was an issue for many at the start of seeding 2026, and I admit that my ducks were not perfectly aligned by late April. It is frustrating for everyone when we see an opportunity for perfect time of sowing, but miss it.
Here at the Q’site is our wheat variety trial seeding in conjunction with Joy from the Corrigin Farm Improvement Group and sown 5th May. Notice the better emergence when sown on the row – as the ag industry, and John Ryan of Ausplow, has promoted for many years. Changing row spacings, or not having a reliable base station, makes this tricky to achieve, but the addition of Aquifer will help.
This light soil, even with low organic matter, is still water repellent – see here what 2.7 mm of rain did for furrow wetting.
With the imminent 30th May rain I am looking forward to seeing the impact of seed placed Aquifer and surface applied wetter both alone and in combination. It should show some interesting germination results.
In late June or early July we look forward to sharing results from the 10 different trials that we have conducted at Quairading. With this cold front and some crops still to be sown, I believe we will still get improvements in emergence from using Aquifer.
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