Investment

GRDC Code: DAS1805-003RMX

Boosting profit and reducing risk on mixed farms in low and medium rainfall areas with newly discovered legume pastures enabled by innovative management methods - southern region.

The Dryland Legumes Pasture Systems Project was undertaken to improve the quality of annual pastures on mixed farms in areas receiving less than 450 mm annual rainfall in SA, Victoria and sNSW. Regional evaluation on neutral/alkaline sandy loam soils typical of the low rainfall Mallee region showed that medics were the best regenerating pasture, while common vetch was ideal for a one-year legume option. Most of the novel species failed to provide significant improvements over medic in SA and Vic, but some did well in selected environments. Seraph strand medic (identified before the project started) proved to have good powdery mildew resistance and sulfonyl urea herbicide tolerance, and hence, was released to growers in 2021. Two additional legumes are planned to be commercialised in coming years from cohorts of burr medic, trigonella or disc medic. In NSW French serradella cv. Fran₂o proved to be deep-rooted, drought resilient, acid tolerant, easy to harvest, and suited to summer sowing, outperforming current serradella cultivars in most situations. A line of bladder clover (Trifolium spumosum) and a trigonella (Trigonella balansae) line will also be released for alkaline soils in the coming 2-3 years. Other promising legumes suitable for future releases in NSW, include bladder clover, helmet clover and Scorpiurus muricatus. Many new species including biserulla showed outstanding resilience in very dry seasons in NSW, and regenerated with high production in the wet 2020 and 2021 years. The project examined novel sowing practices, and summer sowing showed considerable potential in NSW with several species. Cropping and animal benefits were also quantified. Bio-economic modelling calibrated with field trial data and backed up by grower experience indicates that the novel legumes doubled profit ($100/ha increase) compared to farms that have few legumes, with further increases of up to $26/ha than farms reliant on subterranean clover in NSW.

Project start date:

10/05/2018

Project end date:

30/06/2022

Crop type: