Differences between farming systems – Spring Ridge 2015–2017, northern NSW

Abstract

Key findings •For 2015–2017, differences between farming systems for total grain production were small, with yields ranging from 11,084 kg/ha for the high legume system down to 8573 kg/ha for the high crop intensity system. •Differing commodity prices, not yield, drove the gross margins (GM) between systems. The low crop intensity system (wheat/fallow/cotton) had a GM of $2739/ha, outperforming the high nutrition systems (wheat/chickpea/wheat + 200 kgN/ha) GM of $2011/ha. •Water use efficiency (WUE) measures the $GM/mm of water used (rain + change in soil water) to determine the farming system benefits and profitability of the various crop sequences. The low crop intensity system returned $1.66 $GM/mm compared with the high nutrition system at $1.30 GM/mm.