Cutting edge research promises to unlock potential of Australian crops

Biological products that help reduce plant stress and improve nutrient uptake promise to unlock a huge range of benefits for Australian farmers. 

AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2025 Platnum Partner, Elders, is at the forefront of research in the space, much of it through dedicated trial sites at the Tosari Crop Research Centre (TCRC) at Tummaville, south of Brookstead, in Queensland’s Darling Downs region. 

Elders has a permanent site at the centre where it undertakes cropping research on behalf of growers and under contract for suppliers of seed, agtech, crop protection and crop nutrition products.   

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Elders Technical Services Manager and Seed Specialist Maree Crawford is also on the TCRC board, and said the site delivers efficiencies by hosting all of Elders’ cropping research at one location, as well as offering the perfect venue for staff training, “so they can go and learn the theory, and then and experience the visual impacts in field simultaneously”. 

Maree Crawford, Elders State Technical Services Manager and Nathan Surawski, Elders State Rural Products Manager.

Battling herbicide resistance with innovative chemistry

Among the most valuable research underway is exploring potential new chemistry to help address growing problems with herbicide resistance. 

“Our agronomists get to see brand new molecules that haven’t been commercialised, which is really important … we get that early window look at what some of the future solutions are,” Maree said. 

“It gives us a clear opportunity to evaluate some of the new solutions that we can bring to a client, and how we’re going to work them into a system.” 

Other research is focused on plant genetics, such as the new dual-purpose Oliver forage oats developed by the Elders business, EPG Seeds. 

The future of crop enhancement is biological

But what excites Maree most is the evaluation of nutritional enhancement products, categorised as biologicals, biostimulants or bio amendments, which harness the properties of naturally occurring microbes and other catalysts.  

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To date, they have tested more than 400 products in the hunt for ways of reducing plant stress and increasing crop yields. 

“The common denominator for loss of productivity and yield is directly linked to stress events in crops,” she said. 

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s water, heat, drought, cold, or pest and diseases, they’re all stresses that impact on yield. 

“If we can support the plant’s immune and metabolic systems to overcome those stresses and regulate stress hormone production within the plant to withstand those events, we stand a greater chance of protecting our clients’ income through yield.” 

From sceptic to biological products advocate

After seven years of evaluating new products based on a range of bacteria, fungi, peptides and enzymes, Maree said she empathised with growers who had written off biologicals as pseudo-scientific “snake oil”. 

“I get that because I’m actually one of those converted sceptics,” she said. 

“I work on the theory that we’re only as good as our last recommendation and we’ve got to be very ethical about our recommendations. We’re here to make money for our clients, not cost them money.” 

Maree said it had been shown that most conventionally grown crops were only able to efficiently utilise an average of 40% of applied nitrogen fertiliser. 

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Applying biologicals helps make crucial soil nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, more readily available and stimulates root development in plants allowing them to take up more nutrients and boost yields. 

“We’ve proven that these things do work but, more importantly, in the past we haven’t understood what their role is and where to fit them.”

“They’re not intended to replace the synthetic or conventional fertiliser programs; they’re actually there to enhance and to make utilisation more efficient.” 

Collaboration and knowledge sharing 

Each October Elders showcases its research during a well-attended field day at Tosari, and publishes results in an annual trials book. 

Elders also has joint projects with Grains Research and Development Corporation, Hort Innovation, CSIRO, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, NSW Department of Primary Industries, industry peak bodies and universities, including University of Southern Queensland and the University of Sydney. 

Maree said they regularly invite representatives of those companies and partner organisations along to dozens of grower meetings to talk about their aspirations and what’s in the research pipeline. 

The response from farmers to biologicals has been “phenomenal”. 

“There’s enormous interest, because we realise that we can’t continue to keep pouring on excessive kilos of synthetic forms of nitrogen into our soil.”

“In Queensland, what’s really driven some of this has been best management practice that’s now translated out of herbicides and crop protection products into nutrition products. The Great Barrier Reef legislation has been a large driver of that practice change … and that’s really had a profound impact. We’re now seeing that ripple effect across broadacre areas as well.” 

Nationwide demand to boost adoption of biologicals

While much of the research at Tosari is intended to benefit growers in Queensland, Northern NSW and the Northern Territory, there has also been significant interest from farmers in southern cropping regions. 

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Maree said she expected the use of biologicals to become mainstream within the next five years, as new technology made it easier to measure results, and manufacturers adopted standard practices from the crop protection sector, such as labelling and consistency of formulations along with best management practice guidelines. New novel formulations will also provide additional benefits for agriculture. 

The best part about these products is the active ingredients can be “put into a dormant state” and stored in a highly concentrated form that is shelf stable and can be transported long distances, she said. 

Mixing them with water revives the active and the slurry can then be applied as a seed treatment or injected into the soil or surfaces.  

“I think this will really start to ramp up and become the norm,” Maree said. 

 

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“There’ll be greater guidance around being able to customise programs with these products and understanding compatibilities and what products to use to overcome specific production problems. 

“An advisor will be able to look at the label and quickly identify the source for example, it’s that strain of bacillus, and understanding the application and constraints of specific elements will be able to quickly customise a program that is effective and targeted rather than the shotgun approach currently applied with some of these products.

“Knowledge on which diseases the inoculum or product is effective on will also magnify the value of the program and the products selected for use in a program that requires a more organic product over straight synthetic alternatives.” 

Thomas Elder Sustainable Agriculture (TESA) works at the forefront of this evolution and is committed to bridging the gap between research and on-farm change for Australian producers.  Learn more about TESA here.  

Elders is the Platinum Partner for AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2025 on 18-19 February in Brisbane, Queensland, marking their fifth year of support. 

To celebrate bringing evoke^AG. to Brisbane, Elders and evoke^AG. are giving Queenslanders the chance to win a golden ticket valued at $990! Submissions close Tuesday, 10 December. Enter here.