More profitable crops in Western Australia

CropMan is a simple computer based tool that estimates crop yields in Western Australia to help farmers select the most profitable management for their farms.

CropMan is an interface for a simulated database of crop performance under different soil types, weather and management to estimate potential crop yields using historical weather records from the last 104 years in Western Australia.

Developed by Dr Senthold Asseng from CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth using the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator from Queensland, CropMan can be applied in Kojonup, Wongan Hills, Merredin and six locations in the Northern Sandplains including Buntine and Mingenew.

Growers can apply different variables to CropMan to see how potential yield and financial return will vary with changes to management.

For example a grower can enter different rates of nitrogen fertiliser to see if it will be cost effective to increase application.

CropMan will then return a range of possible yields and associated returns and a probability of each occurring.

Variables that farmers can change in CropMan include soil type, nitrogen applications, sowing date, initial soil water and nitrogen conditions and wheat variety.

CSIRO Plant Industry has already run four successful workshops demonstrating CropMan to WA farmers and is looking to extend them further.

CropMan has been developed in collaboration with Western Australia's Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit with support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

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