Turning up the heat on field crop research

15 August 2023

At a time when record temperatures and extreme heatwaves are causing concern globally, the Free Air Temperature Extreme (FATE) facility at Agriculture Victoria’s Horsham SmartFarm will provide vital information on the impact of climate change on field crops.

Agriculture Victoria Research Leader of Crop Agronomy Dr Glenn Fitzgerald is testing the effect of heatwaves on cereal, pulse and oilseed crops using computerised, custom-engineered trolleys mounted with infrared heaters.

‘The FATE facility helps us to assess the impact of heatwaves on plant functions at critical times during the growing season such as grain-filling or flowering.’

‘Unlike standard chamber-based studies on heatwaves, these trolleys sit in the ‘free air’ in paddocks and radiate heat directly on to the plants growing underneath, while still exposing them to wind, rain and other atmospheric conditions in a real-world setting.

‘We can program the FATE computers to dial the heat up or down and change the frequency, severity and duration of our simulated heatwaves,’ he said.

‘There are lots of variations that we can explore including the effect of warmer nights on crops versus a frost event that might be experienced by our reference crops.’

Dr Fitzgerald said the research goes far beyond the obvious conclusion that a hotter climate and heatwaves will reduce crop yields and grain quality.

‘This season we are doing heatwave research on wheat and lentils which will feed into other work done at the SmartFarm on grain traits being studied by our teams who work in crop quality, plant genomics and breeding.

‘We are aiming to simulate drought-like conditions which will allow us to understand the different impacts heatwaves and drought have on crops.’

The FATE facility is funded by the Victorian Government as part of Agriculture Victoria’s 10 year Agriculture Strategy and the Safer Smarter Farms Program which highlights risk management and adaptation to climate change. The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has provided a further $800,000 funding to expand the facility in 2023-24.

Agriculture Victoria is also collaborating with the University of Sydney to trial some of their heat tolerant wheat lines in the FATE facility, and CSIRO to help understand heat impacts to varieties of lentils.

Find out more about the agriculture strategy here: https://go.vic.gov.au/3QxJ6tu

Media contact: Anna Ferguson

Phone: 0499 540 475