An early estimation of crop emergence in these challenging, dry winter conditions is an important agronomy tool to later manage canopy density for the season and spring outlook.

If plant establishment is poor it can have a major influence on final crop yield.

Agriculture Victoria seasonal risk agronomist Dale Boyd said successful crop establishment depends largely on soil moisture, which has been limited due to May’s decile 1 rainfall.

“Having the planting equipment and good quality seed can really help make the most of what moisture is there,” Mr Boyd said.

“The crop density calculator can be easily downloaded to your home screen of a smartphone, and is part of the soil moisture dashboard, which provides real time moisture profiles across the state.

“The crop density calculator is a simple tool that will assist cropping farmers and/or their agronomists, to make informed decisions on crop management strategies according to the number of plants they have successfully managed to emerge this season.

“A feature of the calculator is the instant feedback from entering numbers into the required sections such as row spacing and the plant counts that only takes a few minutes.

“As phones are carried most of the time, there will be plenty of opportunities to analyse multiple paddocks.”

Mr Boyd said throughout May, farmers and agronomists have been looking at crop emergence and attempting to determine the plant numbers in paddocks.

“Monitoring will continue into winter as crop densities will vary widely between farms and even within paddocks depending on soil type and rainfall,” he said.

“Conducting in-crop surveillance and understanding the plant population currently (and what might still emerge) is an important number to know.”

Mr Boyd said farmers can revise their original paddock plans with their adviser based on a known plant number and time of crop emergence. Continuing to monitor soil moisture and seasonal conditions/outlooks is also essential.

“It should be noted that accuracy of plant density estimates depends upon an adequate number of representative counts being taken across the paddock.

“The plant estimate determined will only be a guide and assumptions made from the estimates contain a degree of uncertainty, noting cereals and canola have a greater capacity to compensate for lower plant density than do legumes.”

The crop density calculator can be found at: https://extensionaus.com.au/soilmoisturemonitoring/estimating-crop-plant-density/

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Friday, 23rd May 2025

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