31 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 199 — Autumn 2018 LIFTING RETURNS WITH BETTER, MORE SPECIFIC AGRONOMY QUICK TAKE l  New management guidelines have been developed for wheat and canola produced in the southern irrigation areas of Australia, as a result of a three-year research project. l  The project evaluated a range of cultivars to help growers make varietal decisions based on trials in local irrigated production systems. l  In addition, several aspects of crop production and management were investigated to understand the interaction between variety and management at different locations. l  The results and findings of the project have been interpreted by researchers and agronomists to produce best management practice manuals for irrigated crops, and variety specific agronomy packages for each trial location. Irrigators of southern Australia now have variety-specific information about wheat and canola in irrigated farming environments, from the Lachlan Valley in the north to Tasmania in the south. Lucy Kealey Editor, IREC Farmers’ Newsletter INFORMATION collated from three years of field trials through the project, Southern Irrigated Cereal and Canola Achieving Target Yields, co- funded by NSW Department of Primary Industries and Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). Research sites were established at core locations in the Murrumbidgee Valley (Yanco Agricultural Institute and Coleambally) and north west Victoria (Kerang) and satellite locations in the Lachlan Valley, Murray Valley, south east South Australia and Tasmania. As a result of field work, the project produced agronomic guidelines for growers and advisers to increase irrigated cereal and canola production. Industry research prior to the project estimated that if yields of irrigated crops (at the time of the research) were increased to best trial levels, the farm gate value of cereals and canola had the potential to double. The ‘achieving target yields’ project identified top-performing varieties under irrigation and identified agronomic practices that interact with each variety to produce a high-yielding crop.