Identifying and managing frost affected Crops

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Grain growers in areas hit by frosts are being advised to monitor crops for up to two weeks following a severe frost event in order to determine the extent of damage and to make informed decisions about crop options.

Growers affected by frost can access information and resources via the GRDC website's Managing Frost Risk page.

The page provides up-to-date, practical information that can assist growers, even in high-impact years, to accurately assess crop damage and make informed management decisions.

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Resources include a video on identifying frost damage:

Identification of frost damage is also outlined in a podcast.

Other resources include the GRDC Managing Frost Risk Tips and Tactics publication, the GRDC Hay and Silage fact sheet on making the most of a failed winter crop, as well as frost identification guides for cereals, canola and pulses.

Frost is high priority in the GRDC's five-year Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) Plan and a new strategy has been developed aimed at helping growers in frost-prone areas manage their farm businesses to minimise the impact of frost on yield and profit.

This strategy acknowledges that frost causes not only direct yield losses, but indirect yield losses due to growers attempting to minimise the impact of frost by selecting less profitable crops and delaying sowing.

Future frost-related investment will be broadened to include multiple crops and potentially innovative solutions in the areas of digital agriculture, agronomic tools and genetics, to ensure all research options are investigated.

This new strategy is multi-faceted but its aims include better quantifying the relationship between low temperatures and yield, establishing the economic value of in-season and post-event frost management tools and approaches, and improving knowledge not just for wheat but for other pulse and cereal crops in frost-prone areas.

www.grdc.com.au