212-304 Plant Production

Availability

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

606-023 Agricultural Botany, 521-024 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 212-201 Soil Resources.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Topics include potential and actual production; factors limiting productivity; efficiency of production; intra- and inter-specific competition; effect of weeds; modes of action, methods of application and role of herbicides; availability of water and nutrients; water flow through crops and pastures, relationship to growth and yield; productivity and management of rain-fed agriculture; principles of irrigation; components of yield in crops and pastures; growth and development; legumes as components of communities and rotations; final and seasonal production; nutrient cycling; dynamics of re-establishment of annual pastures; infectious agents and their effect on growth, yield and quality; diagnosis and treatment; crop protection and integrated pest management; practical work: Practical classes in plant protection will be held and a research project will be conducted in residence at the Longerenong Campus.

On completion of this subject students should: be aware of the potential productivity of crops and pastures in temperate Australian agriculture; appreciate many of the physical, biological and environmental constraints which limit productivity; and be aware of important agronomic and disease control practices used in the management of crops and pastures.

Assessment

A 3-hour written examination (60%); a practical examination (10%), a literature review (10%) and a report on the Longerenong excursion (20%). Students are also required to submit an accurately named collection of 80 plants of agricultural significance, including at least 20 grasses. A pass in the subject requires individual passes in the written examination plus the literature review and in the remaining practical components taken as group.

Prescribed Texts

• G N Agrios, Plant Pathology. 3rd ed., Academic Press, 1988.
• C J Pearson and R L Ison (eds), Agronomy of Grassland Systems. CUP, 1987.
• R S Loomis and D J Connor, Crop Ecology: Productivity and Management in Agricultural Systems. CUP, 1992.