Dr Alex Wu is an Amplify Fellow at the Centre for Crop Science for the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland. Alex develops integrative crop ecophysiological knowledge with crop simulation modelling to fast-track smarter decisions in breeding and crop management, supporting the Australian grains industry in achieving greater yield and yield stability.
Crop modelling in crop management and genetic improvement
Dr Alex Wu
Computer modelling and simulation of crops can guide decision making by predicting consequences of crop management and genetic trait improvement options.
Dr Alex Wu and Professor Graeme Hammer. Graeme is one of the founders of the globally leading crop modelling platform, Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM). Alex has been working as a post-doctoral fellow with Graeme in further developing and applying this technology.
Poor seasonal conditions can wipe off tens of million tonnes of grain production and multi-billion dollar reduction in the total farmgate value each year. Achieving productivity gains and yield stability are thus sustained focal areas in the grains industry.
This requires the synergetic effort of many individuals and entities spanning the grains industry: farmers to grow the most suitable crops based on informed decisions, with the support of breeders, agronomists, and extension experts in providing cultivars and production advice, which are powered by research and development. A platform to integrate these collective efforts will be most valuable.
What is crop modelling?
The Australian grains industry already has extensive experience with existing crop cultivars, management practices, and production environments. This helps growers to achieve good crop outcomes and minimise the odds of bad productivity performance and financial losses. The sustained focus on increasing yield and yield stability will require continual supply of innovations to improve management practices and cultivar attributes.
One of the means to generate innovation is via computer simulation. Via modelling and simulation, it is feasible to look at anticipated yield and production risk ‘a priori’ by examining outcomes over many years and locations. The best way to do this is by using a reliable crop model with relevant long-term climate data and soil data to simulate what might happen when agronomic practices and/or cultivar attributes are changed.
Broadacre crops can be thought of as a complex soil–plant–environment system with many interacting biological (underpinned by the genetics of the plant, G), environmental (E), and crop management practice (M) components. Crop modelling is an exercise that formalises our knowledge in how G × E × M can interact into mathematical equations, connecting knowledge from across the grains industry from grain growers to researchers.
Modelling and simulation provide an avenue to predict consequences of crop management decision options, support their relevance by assessing broad-scale impact , as well as test new cultivar ideas and climatic conditions that may not currently exist. This helps the formulation of robust ideas that can be followed by real-world testing, supporting the delivery of innovations.
Tangible benefits of crop modelling
The concepts related to using crop models as agricultural decision/discussion support has matured over the past many decades and forms a critical part of the grains industry research and development.
Crop science research and modelling supported by the grains industry has enabled the development of advanced computer modelling capability (Hammer et al., 2010). This capability has been used with long-term sequences of climatic data to test probabilistic estimates of yield for a range of decision options, such as planting time, antecedent soil moisture status, cultivar maturity, and moisture conserving agronomic practices like single- and double-skip row systems (Muchow et al., 1994). It has also provided avenues to test G × E × M options for likely future climates (Hammer et al., 2020).
This capability has also been utilised for plant breeding. In addressing the stagnation in the improvement of crop yield, a major Australian government investment into crop modelling enabled researchers and plant breeders to evaluate the value of manipulating plant genetics on photosynthesis, increasing the efficiency at which crop plants convert CO2 into biomass and yield (Wu et al., 2019).
These sorghum crop modelling examples show the ability of modelling in generating broad-scale assessment as an effective means to support robust discussion with decision-makers.
Better outcomes for the grains industry
As the grains industry looks for avenues to improve productivity and profitability, investment into crop science and modelling and engaging with experts and tools for decision/discussion support can help accelerate the discovery and delivery of innovative strategies.
Crop modelling has significantly increased the quality of research and development outputs by integrating knowledge and efforts between decision-making individuals and entities across the wider grains industry from growers, plant breeders, advisors, agronomists, plant/crop scientists experts.
The concept of engaging modelling as a supportive tool extends beyond the provided sorghum example, benefiting various Australian crops including other cereals (e.g., wheat: Chenu et al., 2017; Hunt et al., 2019), legumes, horticulture and viticulture crops.
Maintaining and growing the fruitful interactions across the agricultural industry supported by modelling research and experts will help ensure Australia’s agriculture improvement efforts remain robust and relevant for addressing new challenges.
Some of the entities with close connections to crop modelling efforts. The output of each decision-maker can be enhanced with a two-way connection with others. Crop modelling plays a key role in facilitating information exchange and decision/discussion support.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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