Episode #10
Episode 10: Frost From the Ground Up with Dr Ben Biddulph
Send us Fan Mail CSIRO gave us Wi-Fi, Aerogard, plastic banknotes and the word petrichor (that earthy smell of rain on dry ground). This week they give us Dr Ben Biddulph. We're heading into prime frost risk, so I sat down with Ben, Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO in Perth, formerly Chief Scientist of Primary Industries at DPIRD, and one of the country's leading voices on reproductive frost in wheat and barley. He's spent more than two decades on the things that break crops in this climate: frost, drought, heat, waterlogging and salinity. Much of that work has been through national GRDC frost projects. Because the reason a minus two degree night can cost us 80% of a crop, while our east coast colleagues can get minimal damage at minus six, comes down to a bacterium. Pseudomonas syringae lives on your crop residue, and when it gets cold it builds a protein lattice on the outside of its cell that lines water molecules up so ice can form. Instead of supercooling to minus ten or minus twelve, your crop freezes at minus three. And those little one to two millimetre scuddy showers that roll through at four in the afternoon are delivering high concentrations of it, right before the frost arrives. In this episode: Why frost-prone country has spread from isolated pockets of the central wheatbelt into the Great Southern, the south coast and the north-eastern wheatbelt The citizen science project where growers collected spring rain in their freezers Why heavy stubble loads increase frost damage, and the rule of thumb Ben's team landed on after three years of work What thermography revealed at two in the morning in a paddock — including why ice forms at the bottom of the canopy, not at the coldest point Three pieces of myth-busting: nitrogen, copper and potash. Two don't do what growers think. One absolutely does. Why barley moved from last crop in the ground to second Managing the human side, and why everyone remembers 1998 or 2004 Resources mentioned GRDC Frost Tips and Tactics: https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/resources/frost-management/tips-for-identifying-frost-damage DPIRD Bulletin 4904 and 4905 — Cereals, Canola and Pulse Frost Identification Guides (available on the DPIRD and GRDC websites) Thank you to Williams Woolshed in Williams for wardrobe support and Naked Coffee Bean in Albany for keeping me caffeinated. Connect with Leonie Instagram: @agfromthegroundup Website: www.agriculturefromthegroundup.com.au
