Drought Tolerant Crops and Pasture: How Silicon Helps Plants Through Dry, Hot Seasons

What drought costs

Drought causes average global wheat yield losses of about 20%. In Australia, you do not need a statistic to tell you what a dry season does. You have watched a promising crop hit a hot, dry October and go backwards in a fortnight. You have fed out hay you did not plan to feed.

The search for drought tolerant crops and drought tolerant pasture is really a search for insurance: something that keeps the plant functioning when the rain does not come. Variety choice, sowing time, stubble cover and soil water all matter. Silicon is the one most farmers have not heard about.

What the research actually shows

University of Melbourne glasshouse and field research found silicon fertiliser has the potential to increase wheat yields under drought and heat stress. Here is the part that builds trust: in the good seasons of 2022 and 2023, there was no yield difference. The researchers said that was expected, because silicon's role is stress mitigation. Visual stay green effects were seen in silicon treated wheat.

A German field study found the same pattern from a different angle: silicon fertilised plots held higher soil moisture, and wheat performed better during drought, with improved phosphorus concentration.

A major review in Frontiers in Plant Science links silicon to tolerance of drought, heat, salinity and metal toxicity. The mechanism is physical: silicon deposits in cell walls, reducing water loss and helping the plant keep functioning when conditions turn.

The honest insurance framing

We will say it plainly: if you farm in a perfect climate with reliable rain, silicon will do less for you. Silicon pays off most under stress: drought, heat, salinity, acidity, pest and disease pressure. That is not a weakness in the product. It is what the research consistently shows, and it is exactly when farmers need help.

Think of silicon like insurance on the season. In the good years, you barely notice it. In the years that hurt, it is the difference between a crop that holds and a crop that folds. The University of Melbourne researchers found exactly that pattern: no yield difference in good seasons, potential yield protection in bad ones.

Apply before the dry, not during it

Timing is everything with silicon. It works by being in the plant tissue before stress arrives, not by rescuing a crop that is already dying. Once the plant is shutting down, it is too late to build tougher cell walls.

For crops, apply at or before sowing so silicon is in the plant before the spring heat hits. For pasture, apply in spring so the stand carries silicon into summer. MaxSil Powder typically starts at 50 kg/ha, with the rate confirmed by a MaxSil agronomist for each paddock after a soil test.

MaxSil blends with urea, DAP and MAP and goes out through standard spreading gear, so fitting it into a pre-sowing pass costs nothing extra in machinery.

What it looks like on Australian farms

Tony Donovan at Midfield Meats runs 14,000 hectares in Victoria. As reported in Stock & Land in June 2026, after bringing MaxSil into the program he reported cutting urea use by more than 40% and reported winter weight gain rising to as much as 2 kg a day. Weight gain through winter is a resilience outcome: animals keep growing because the pasture keeps performing.

In a WA barley trial on saline soil, country where drought and salt stress stack together, MaxSil recorded a 14% yield increase. Saline soil stresses plants the way drought does, by making water harder to take up, and silicon helped the crop perform anyway.

These are reported and trial results, not guarantees. Your seasons, soils and management are your own. That is why the standard starting point is a measured strip trial on your place.