BACK PADDOCK SOILMATE COTTON PLANT TISSUE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
If soil testing was skipped this year and your preplant N program was interrupted by a shortage of N fertiliser product, letting the plant tell you what N it’s seeing when its roots are firmly established is a helpful aid to making N decisions when used alongside crop vigour assessments.
Cotton nitrogen management using old ‘rules of thumb’ is a higher risk strategy when N fertiliser availability is uncertain.
Simple, local options to manage this risk based on measurement and best science are now available with Back Paddock SoilMate products and services and our local plant tissue service providers’ network.
REGISTER for your local service here if you want to simplify the process
Crown Analytical, Moree
Netecom, Griffith
Nutrilab, Goondiwindi
| Plant part | What can it tell me to help manage N? | When is it most useful? |
|---|---|---|
| Leaf blade (minus petiole) | General crop nutrient status and N based on growth rate and plant N stored to date. | All growth stages based unique interpretation data that uses days after emergence to determine adequate nutrient ranges |
| Petiole (leaf stalk) | Is the soil N supply matching the crop growth rate recently? Fine-tuning the timing of post-plant N. Avoid excess plant vigour and quality defects at defoliation. | Squaring till 4 weeks post first flowers. Crop cut-out |
| How does it work for in-crop nutrition | Benefits |
|---|---|
| With Back Paddock cotton plant sample you only have 2 steps: 1. You collect samples 2. Lodge your samples to your local service provider o Crown Labs, Moree o Netecom, Griffith o Nutrilab, Goondiwindi Compare this with the extra work in completing lab forms, packaging/arranging freight, inputting data and creating reports. | Saves you time (hours with each sampling) |
| You will receive the interpreted seasonal status report for the field within 2 working days for petioles and 4 days for leaf blades. Important: These services continue to operate during the Christmas-New Year critical growth period for summer cropping. | Fastest turn-around |
| Plant Samples are dried locally to ensure against plant sap leakage which can occur in any long transit to lab analysis. Sample cooler boxes are available from each service provider | No sample degradation in transit to the lab |
| You have access to Dr Chris Dowling from Back Paddock for email and phone contact with any agronomic queries that arise from test results. | The industry’s leading independent technical support |
This service supports local, technology-based employment in rural communities, helping to build regionally-based capabilities for productivity and natural resource accountability in agriculture.
Back Paddock Company have a commitment to quality which means we check the inter lab accuracy between our service providers preseason to ensure they are comparable.
The outcomes:
- Optimise yields and nitrogen costs
- Contribute to cotton industry’s environmental stewardship and emissions reduction goals – ‘measure’ and aim for Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE)
- “… five years to 2018-19, on average almost 60 per cent of the emissions to grow and ship to port a bale of cotton came from nitrogen fertiliser” https://www.cottoninfo.com.au/blog/2021-sustainability-focus-april-less-emissions-more-sequestration
- Help ensure against late season lint quality penalties
Petiole Nitrogen Management report:
Leaf blade crop nutrition ‘health’ & N stored report:
For more details about the how, what, when and why of sampling, take a tour of our detailed sampling guide or download it by clicking here