2020 Nuffield Scholars Billy Browning and Richard Quigley (obscured), with US farmer Kent Kalcevic watch a stripper front in action on the first day of wheat harvest at Kalcevic Farms, Bennett, Colorado in 2023. Photo: Nuffield Australia

TRANGIE farmer Richard Quigley has found the strip-and-disc system can increase ground cover and crop residue while reducing evaporation in his research undertaken as a Nuffield Scholar. 

Mr Quigley, who farms at Trangie in central New South Wales, was motivated to take on a Nuffield Scholarship investigating the strip-and-disc system after farming through the 2017-20 drought. 

Released today, his Nuffield report explores the benefits and challenges associated with the strip-and-disc system. 

His research has found its benefits include improving soil health, plant growth, drought resilience, and ultimately farm profits, and it has potential particularly in moisture-limited environments. 

The system uses a Shelbourne front to strip grain from the stem, leaving most of the plant material behind. 

Farmers then follow with a disc seeder, which uses a sharp angled disc to cut a slot in the residue in the soil, into which the seed for the next crop is placed. 

Mr Quigley has implemented the system on the family’s Quigley Farms, which grows irrigated cotton, dryland wheat, barley, chickpeas, and canola, and opportunity dryland cotton. 

They also have a grazing operation focused on breeding and finishing sheep and cattle. 

With an average annual rainfall of 480mm and measured evaporation of more than 2000mm, moisture is usually the limiting factor for their crops. 

Having tested the system on-farm and travelled for Nuffield to review the approach, Mr Quigley said the benefits would be greater in below-average rainfall years. 

“For example, the extra soil moisture this year has allowed our crops to finish really well, with good grain fill and no or very little screenings,” Mr Quigley said. 

“I think it has real benefit to improve the yield and quality of dryland cotton crops by providing more plant available water, therefore allowing the crops to finish better. 

“I see the most benefit from stripper headers and increased levels of crop residue in Australia’s semi-arid grain growing regions and dryland cotton environments, and the benefits will be reduced in higher rainfall and cooler regions.” 

Mr Quigley found significant increases in harvester efficiency and throughput, resulting in a reduction of up to half of fuel burnt during harvest. 

This builds upon the soil health benefits and increase to the amount of water available to a crop. 

Cotton Australia and Cotton Research and Development Corporation supported Mr Quigley’s Nuffield Scholarship, which saw him travel to North America, Europe and Singapore, as well as different parts of Australia.

Richard Quigley and Dan Taylor in Dan’s cotton with a sacrificial wheat cover crop near Ropesville, Texas. Photo: Nuffield Australia

In the US, Mr Quigley was impressed with how farmers in Kansas and Colorado used the strip-and-disc system to store moisture through catching snow, preventing it blowing away in their winters, and growing grain crops on less than 250mm of rain. 

He said the strip and disc system has its challenges, including the stripper fronts not being compatible with conventional furrow-irrigated cotton production in Australia without additional residue management techniques, primarily due to trash-flow issues. 

However, the fronts are compatible with sprinkler and drip-irrigated cotton-farming systems as well as dryland cotton production systems to increase water-use efficiency. 

Mr Quigley said most farmers would require new machinery, and there can be additional pest, weed and disease pressure thanks to the extra ground cover. 

However, he believes the benefits of adopting this system outweigh the challenges. 

As well as giving him confidence in this new production systems and learning how to optimise its implementation, Mr Quigley recommends the Nuffield experience for the connections made. 

“We bonded with colleagues who are passionate about agriculture and are professionals in their respective fields. 

“It was great to bounce business ideas off them and get their insights. 

“But it’s not just people we travelled with. 

“Being a Nuffield Scholar opens a lot of doors; it creates a connection with people in the agricultural world.” 

Source: Nuffield Australia