From the Editor

Welcome to issue # 340 of the Katherine Rural Review (KRR) and nearly the last quarter of the 2019.

Well, it has been a busy couple of months, with no sign of slowing up at the Katherine Research Station (KRS).

There has been a few local bull sales with some fantastic bulls, most appealing was temperament and fertility breeding values which has been great to see. I very nearly bought a few but they would not fit in the office.

The amazing team at Territory Natural Resource Management have been running soil workshops with producers which have been well attended and a great deal of fun across the Katherine and Darwin region. The workshops have a focus on learning about the health of your soil, the interaction between nutrients and plant nutrient uptake, the role of microflora within this system and how to enhance your soil management for improved soil health that will result in enhanced profitability and long term sustainability.

The first Northern Territory (NT) cotton season since the 2000s has wound up with all producer and research crops harvested and the final data is being collated. The result was very positive for producers and a large focus is on dryland/rain fed cotton moving forward. It has been amazing to see the progress that the cotton industry has made in environmental management in the last 20 years.  It has been great to be a part of this developing industry and exciting to see the plans for further expansion in the 2019/20 wet season.

Read on to find out more about supplementing phosphorous, what’s happening in the world of weed control, highlights of the department’s show stall­, cows for schools and much more. We have a few events still to come so refer to the events summary at the end of the KRR and be sure to RSVP. The next field day at Douglas Daly Research Farm on 10 October will be one of the last before the coming wet season.

Cheers,

Ian Biggs

Editor