Throughout our travels in the last few weeks, which included a trip or two through the South Australian and Victorian Mallee, farmers are planning their fertiliser and soil conditioning inputs for the coming season.
Many farmers now have capacity to add nutrients, soil conditioners and fungicides in liquid form at planting – placed directly into the planted furrow.

This innovative technology is providing farmers with many more options and adaptations when planting crops on varying soil types and in areas of varying plant production pressures.

The utilisation of this technology is certainly having strong results on farm, however many do not realise that the efficacy of what they are applying is being influenced by the water they are tank mixing the products with.

Land managers should be aware of, and should test their water quality. The pH and the salt content can impact on how many products perform in the soil.

So before tank mixing large volumes, always remember to ‘jar test’ and monitor your water quality, which can be as simple as a pH/EC meter which you can use in field.

Bore water, river water, dam water and rain water all can have different impacts and reactions. Some times a simple fix such as changing the tank water pH can save many issues in the field when planting!