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2008 14th AAC
Concurrent Papers
Achieving Change
Perceptions Of Grain Growers Towards Annual Cropping In T...

Perceptions of grain growers towards annual cropping in the high rainfall zone of Southern Australia

Angela Clough¹, Penny Riffkin² and Catriona King³

¹Department of Primary Industries, 402 Mair St, Ballarat, Vic 3350. Email angela.clough@dpi.vic.gov.au² Department of Primary Industries, Mount Napier Rd, Hamilton, Vic 3300. Email penny.riffkin@dpi.vic.gov.au³ Department of Primary Industries, 15 Hume and Hovell Rd, Seymour, Vic 3660. Email catriona.king@dpi.vic.gov.au

Abstract

Grain production in the high rainfall zone (HRZ) of southern Australia has the potential to produce high yielding cereals, canola and pulses. However, actual yields often fall well short of the estimated potential. A survey of growers in the HRZ was conducted to gain a greater understanding of the factors which may prevent growers from achieving potential yields. The survey captured grower perceptions relating to cultivar improvements and environmental and social factors they believe to have the greatest impacts on grain yields. The survey was distributed through Ground Cover magazine to all grower subscribers in the HRZ. Data from returned questionnaires was split into sub-groups based upon postcode and farm size. Responses to individual questions were analysed using frequency histograms for multiple answer type questions with dichotomous data, and using cross-tabulation when analysed relative to sub-groups. Response to questions with Likert scale responses were analysed using one-way analysis of variance. In this survey, growers throughout the HRZ provided common responses regarding the date of the autumn break, where they seek advice concerning variety selection and where improvements are needed in cultivar performance. However, different responses were evident depending upon region and farm size for issues such as grain utilisation and cereal stubble handling methods. This information is valuable for those providing growers with tools to enable the HRZ to reach its full potential and consistently contribute high yields to the Australian grains industry.

Key Words

survey, perceptions, social, high rainfall zone, cereal, canola

Introduction

The high rainfall zone (HRZ) of southern Australia has the potential to produce high yielding grain crops including wheat, barley, canola and a range of pulses. Consistent yields, particularly in years declared drought in the traditional winter cropping areas, means the HRZ has the potential to significantly contribute to Australia’s winter crop production (ABS 2004a; ABS 2004b).

So far, productivity increases in the HRZ have been attained through changes such as introducing longer season cereal and canola varieties, crop varieties with improved disease resistance, application of fungicides and the introduction of raised beds to alleviate waterlogging. These practice changes were principally driven by breeders, researchers and a select group of highly motivated grain growers. The perceptions of a broad cross-section of grain growers in the HRZ has not previously been canvassed and made available to all plant breeders. A national survey of HRZ grain growers’ perceptions of the issues limiting winter crop production was conducted to provide breeders and researchers with grass roots information to decide the future direction of plant breeding, crop and soil research, and practice change programs. The importance of gaining the views of grain growers is obvious if the survey is viewed as a market research exercise where the results can be used to develop products or services that meet grain growers’ common desires. This paper is focused on the crop production section of the survey.

Methods

Survey preparation

A pilot survey was composed by the project team of agronomists and soil scientists and reviewed by a selection of HRZ grain growers. The pilot questionnaires were distributed to 40 grain growers who were on grower group committees in the targeted States. Responses (n = 18) were received along with constructive comments about the structure of the questionnaire. Pilot survey data was subjected to the same type of statistical analysis and interpretation that was expected to be used with the national survey data. The questionnaire was refined to produce the final version based upon results of the pilot survey.

Survey distribution and return

Questionnaire recipients were selected according to whether their postcode fell within the 500–900 mm annual rainfall isohyets in southern Australia. This area includes much of the HRZ as defined by Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) as the area where average rainfall in the growing season is equal to or greater than 0.33 of evaporation for 9 or more continuous months.

Questionnaires were distributed with reply paid envelopes to 13,831 subscribers to GRDC’s Ground Cover publication as an insert in the December 2005 issue. The survey was double sided A3 format and was accompanied by an explanatory article in the same issue of Ground Cover. The survey stated that responses had to be returned by 16 January 2006, however, responses were accepted until 31 January 2006.

Statistical analysis

Each returned questionnaire was screened before use. Questionnaires returned blank or without the postcode or the farm size data required for grouping were removed from the data set. Returns from one postcode were discarded because of ambiguities for the postal district with some areas well outside the HRZ.

Respondents were placed in three groupings depending upon their background details. Groups were: region; NSW, WA, Corner (South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania) and farm size; < 500 ha, 501-1000 ha, 1001 – 2000 ha and >2000 ha. Region was based upon postcode. Divisions in the data for farm size were based upon a visual assessment of a histogram for all respondents to ensure that categories contained similar numbers of data points.

Frequency analysis for the autumn break included all respondents who gave an actual date. Frequencies were interpreted using interquartiles and histograms for all respondents, and respondents by region. Frequencies of responses to questions where multiple answers were permitted were categorised as YES and NO responses (dichotomous data) and considered relative to the total number of valid respondents rather than the total number of responses. Frequencies where only one response was permitted were analysed in the same way as multiple response questions but respondents who gave multiple answers were excluded.

Questions with a Likert scale response (1 to 5) were analysed using a one way analsyis of variance (ANOVA) tested for validity using the test of homogeneity of variances. Data that failed the test of homogeneity were subjected to a Welch test to test equity of means. All data that showed a significant difference in either the one way ANOVA or Welch test, as appropriate, was subjected to Games-Howell post hoc test to determine which categories were different.

Questions producing dichotomous data were analysed against region, farm size and cropping history using cross-tabulation with a chi-squared analysis. Data that produced a significant difference with a two sided analysis were subjected to a Z test with p values adjusted for multiple comparisons (Bonferroni method).

Results

Respondent distribution

The response rate was 3.5% with 436 questionnaires returned including 19 that could not be used in any data analysis. Region was the background factor which most often influenced respondents responses. Due to the limited number of respondents in Tasmania (11) and South Australia (16) those respondents were grouped with respondents from Victoria. The grouping of those three States is labelled Corner. The total number of valid respondents were 152 from Corner, 153 from NSW and 112 from WA.

The influence of climate

Most growers (58%) who gave a specific date (n = 181) considered that the autumn break occurred between April 20^th and May 15^th. The median autumn break date nominated was May 1^st and was not influenced by region or farm size.

Varietal selection

The three most nominated reasons as to why growers choose particular varieties to grow were consistent across all crops and regions. Variety choice was most commonly based upon personal experience (72%), independent advice (eg crop consultants) (63%) and advice from other growers (55%). Growers who perceived varieties to be unsuitable for their region included growers on larger farms (> 2000 ha), wheat growers who used raised beds or controlled traffic, and pulse growers who used technology such as GPS.

Grain utilisation

The categories provided in the questionnaire covered all options except for 2% of pulse grower respondents who stated they used pulse grain for ‘other purposes’. The end use of each grain type was viewed by region (Table 1). There was a distinct difference in grain use between respondents from WA and other surveyed regions. A lower proportion of WA respondents sold wheat and barley direct to the end user (p < 0.001) and made less use of wheat and barley for on-farm stockfeed (p < 0.001) than other respondents. However, a higher proportion of WA respondents sold barley into a pool system (p < 0.001) or retained canola seed for future sowing (p < 0.001). No respondent stated they used canola for stockfeed (n = 279). The end use of pulse grain did not differ between regions in terms of retaining seed for future sowings, selling grain into a pool system or using grain for stockfeed (n = 236).

Table 1. The percentage (%) of growers in Western Australia (WA) and eastern Australia (EA) who dispose of grain in the listed categories. (Only growers who grew a particular crop are included in that crop category. Growers could nominate more than one grain use option.)

Grain end use	Wheat		Barley		Canola		Pulse
	WA	EA	WA	EA	WA	EA	WA	EA
Retained for seed	82	88	89	77	71	18	66	61
Sold to pool system	90	88	93	72	88	82	42	37
Sold direct to end user	5	35	4	28	3	14	21	39
Used for stockfeed	4	31	20	59	0	0	61	50
Used for other purposes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

Wheat and barley stubble management

The categories provided in the questionnaire covered most options with less than 3% of respondents nominating other management options (Table 2). Overall, the most nominated stubble management technique was grazing which accounted for 31.3% of all responses and it’s popularity did not differ between regions. There was a regional difference in how stubble was managed for the options of burning (p < 0.001), baling (p = 0.001) and leaving stubble standing (p < 0.001). Burning stubble was nominated by a lower proportion of respondents in WA than in other regions whilst baling was practiced by a higher proportion of respondents from ‘Corner’ than from the other regions. Farm size was related to the prevalence of the stubble management options burning (p = 0.003) and leaving stubble standing (p = 0.01). A lower proportion of respondents nominated stubble burning whilst a higher proportion of respondents nominated leaving stubble standing as farm size increased.

Table 2. The percentage of growers in each region who use the listed stubble options. (growers could nominate more than one stubble handling option. n=412)

Grain end use	Grazed	Burnt	Chopped	Baled	Left	Incorp.	Other
NSW	76	68	21	13	36	23	1
SA, Vic. and Tas.	71	72	24	30	26	26	3
WA	81	34	32	16	50	19	2

Agronomic Management

Responses to questions about agronomic management issues often indicated that most respondents were fairly satisfied or very satisfied with the available management tools and crop tolerances.

Dissatisfaction with aspects of agronomic management was related to specific grower groups. Pulse growers (n = 230) with farms larger than 1000 ha were less satisfied with available pulse varieties (Likert score = 3.14) than pulse growers on farms smaller than 500 ha (Likert score = 3.81, p = 0.012). Western Australian barley growers were more likely than other barley growers to think that available barley varieties did not cope well with disease pressures (n = 245, p < 0.001). Barley growers in NSW tended to have difficulty making malting grade due to poor grain protein (n = 231, p < 0.001) and when they did they had more difficulty securing malting grade prices than growers in other States (n = 233, p = 0.14). The barley agronomy questions did not identify whether the grain proteins were too high or too low. However, the indication of satisfaction by respondents to specific issues was not reflected in the 1510 comments received. Overall, comments indicated that respondents perceived there were many problems that could be resolved through plant breeding or targeted agronomic advice. Comments received were diverse thus for the purpose of interpretation they were grouped into themed categories (Table 3).

Table 3. The most frequent responses (n) to the question “What would need to change for you to grow more [insert crop]?” with responses grouped into categories for each crop type.

Comment category	wheat	barley	canola	pulse
A price increase ($/t)	164	99	146	60
Varietal improvements	58	76	53	61
Better disease resistance	63	30	31	36
Higher grain yields	35	22	53	61
Increased profits	38	13	41	28
Increase in land availability	20	12	22	7

Total number of comments	449	312	410	339

Conclusions

A cautious approach has been taken to data analysis due to the low response rate. Data analysis and conclusions are restricted to the region level rather than sub-regions (eg Gippsland). The low response rate may have been due to the survey coinciding with harvest. Interpretations of the data were presented back to a Victorian HRZ grower group (about 50 participants) and HRZ crop researchers. Both groups concluded that the data was logical and within their expectations and experiences. The information gained from this survey has provided researchers and agronomists who usually work at a more regionalised scale with a greater understanding of grower practises and perceptions over the wide area classified as the HRZ. This has helped identify research priorities and appropriate information packages to be delivered to growers from different regions.

The standard perception by growers of when the autumn break occurs provides a simple single target sowing date for all breeders and agronomists. The process of variety selection highlights the continued value of personal experience through on-farm trials and independent local sources of data. The tendency for growers with larger farms or those engaging new technology to perceive that cultivars were unsuitable for their region may indicate that growers with a larger investment in their cropping enterprise expect more from breeders or monitor their crops’ performance more closely than other growers. Breeders and agronomists should target these types of growers as a first contact point when introducing new varieties or technology.

The difference in grain utilisation between the eastern States and Western Australia may be related to a difference in the local related industries or the cropping enterprise mix. This will influence what are desirable grain quality characteristics for growers. An important point for canola breeders is the tendency of Western Australian canola growers to retain grain as seed. Retention of seed may cause a lower uptake of new canola varieties and subsequently a slower introduction of new or improved traits.

Stubble management was not raised as a major impediment to crop production and the survey showed that many management options are used. This may indicate that a perception of burning being the only option is localised in areas too small to be identified by this survey. Encouragingly, many of the desired improvements nominated by growers are possible through breeding. Gains could also be made by changing land use from livestock to cropping. Nominated issues relevant to breeders should be targeted to increase crop production and rapid adoption of new varieties. Crop specific target traits for improvement are available in a factsheet series (Victoria DPI, 2006).

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004. 7123.2.55.001 – Agricultural state profile, Victoria, 2001-02.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004. 7123.2.55.001 – Agricultural state profile, Victoria, 2002-03.

Victoria Department of Primary Industries, 2006. Views of grain growers’ in the Australian high rainfall zone – overall perceptions. 3 p.

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