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Pasture Cropping in the Northern Agricultural RegionDavid Ferris, DAFWA
Supporting your success
EverCrop project
• New knowledge
• Grower experience
Update Papers
• Sowing barley into sub-tropical pastures
• Pasture cropping lupins over sub-tropical
perennial grassesBuloke barley over Gatton panic
(Grain yield - 2.5 t/ha)
Pasture cropping - Overview
Supporting your success
Supporting your success
Focus research site - Moora
Test the viability of pasture-cropping
Quantify performance across sites
Define adoptability issues
Develop decision tools
2008 to 2014 - update
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Focus research site - Moora
Supporting your success
Focus research site - Moora
Frost (2010)
Moora focus site - 2013
Soil Type: Deep pale sand
Surface pH(CaCl2) - 5.3
Rainfall (Apr-Oct): 310 mm
Key Result:
Wider distribution of green feed and greater biomass production for ‘pasture crop’ compared to ‘crop only’ or ‘permanent pasture’ systems.
Supporting your success
Oct-12
Nov-12
Dec-12
Jan-13
Feb-13
Mar-13
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13Jul-1
3
Aug-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Barley - Pas-ture Crop
Panic - Pasture Crop
Barley - Crop only
Panic - Perm. pasture
Plant Biomass (t/ha)
Moora focus site - 2013
Supporting your success
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.20.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
DUL
Barley CLL
Lupin CLL
Panic CLL
Panic PC CLL
Soil water content (v/v)
Soil
dept
h (m
)
Moora focus site
Key Result:
Total drainage below 3.8 m ~66 mm per year for ‘Crop only’ and close to zero for pasture crop and permanent pasture systems.
Phil Ward et al. (2014)
Supporting your success
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.20.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
DUL
Barley CLL
Lupin CLL
Panic CLL
Panic PC CLL
Soil water content (v/v)
Soil
dept
h (m
)
Moora focus site
Key Result:
At 50 kg/ha of Nitrogen Pasture crops did not incur a yield penalty over 4 seasons
Supporting your success
0
1
2
3
4
2009barley
2011barley
2012lupin
2013barley
Crop only
Crop & Panic
Crop & Rhodes
Grain yield (t/ha)
Moora focus site
Key Result:
At 80 kg/ha of Nitrogen Pasture crops incurred a yield penalty in two seasons
Supporting your success
0
1
2
3
4
2009barley
2011barley
2012lupin
2013barley
Crop only
Crop & Panic
Crop & Rhodes
Grain yield (t/ha)
Lupin over Gatton panic (Mingenew)
Dean Thomas et al. (2014)
Ausfarm® simulation model
Supporting your success
-100
-50
0
Location
Perc
enta
ge Y
ield
Loss
crop_cultivaraxebulokewyalkatchem
Pasture Cropping - logisticsSowing into subtropical grasses with tines can damage the perennial base
Michael Morrison- Three Springs
Supporting your success
Decision® (1 L/ha)
Herbicide options - Gatton panic
Atrazine (4 L/ha) Sprayseed® (2 L/ha) + Simazine (1.5 L/ha)
Glyphosate-540 (1 L/ha) + Trifluralin (2 L/ha) +Logran B® (50 g/ha)
Select® (500 mL/ha) Midas® (900 mL/ha)
Some plant death
Fusilade®
Midas ®
Select ®
Topic ®
Verdict ®
Glyphosate (≥ 2 L/ha)
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Safe options
Achieve®
Atrazine®
Decision®
Intervix®
Raptor®
Simazine
Sprayseed
Glyphosate (1 L/ha)
Dandaragan focus site - 2013
Key Result:
Pasture crops can be established with tined machines using precision guidance technology
Lupin seeding rates may need to be higher for pasture crops to achieve the same target density as a standard crop (45 plants/m2);
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44 cm 88 cm Control 44 cm 88 cm ControlLupin 100 kg/ha Lupin 150 kg/ha
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Perennial row spacing and Lupin seeding rate
pla
nts
m2
Dandaragan focus site - 2013
Key Result:
For this experiment and assuming lupin seed is $300/t, lifting seeding rate by 50 kg/ha ($15) helped to avert a 26% yield penalty and proved to be $165/ha more profitable overall.
Supporting your success
44 cm 88 cm Control 44 cm 88 cm ControlLupins 100 kg/ha Lupins 150 kg/ha
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Perennial row spacing and Lupin seeding rate
Cro
p Y
ield
(t/
ha)
Pasture CropLupin over subtropical perennial grass
Keith Tunney- Dongara
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Pasture CropBarley over subtropical perennial grass
Grant Bain - Walkaway
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Pasture cropping – Potential benefits
Pasture crops can improve the perennial base by delivering additional fertilizer with the crop and enforcing a rest from gazing during the winter growing season
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Pasture cropping
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Potential Advantages Potential Disadvantages
Improve profitability
Improve business flexibility
Unprofitable in dry years
Unprofitable due to low yield potential
Control weeds Grow feed grain for on-farm use
Specialist machinery needed
to sow crops
Weed control is compromised
Rest perennials improve persistence
Supply nutrients to perennial pastures
Perennial density might decline
Annual pasture productivity reduced
Stabilize erosion prone paddocks
Improve soil health
Green bridge for disease and pests
Pasture CropLupin over subtropical perennial grass
Grant Bain - Walkaway
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Southern areas of the NAR more profitable
due to less competition
Pasture cropping system viable when:
crops grow on incident rain, and
winter pasture growth is suppressed
through low temperature or herbicide.
A fit for mixed crop-livestock farms with:
large areas of deep marginal sands, and
meat dominant flock
Viability of pasture cropping
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Thank youVisit agric.wa.gov.au
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Rotational gross margin - Mingenew 2012
2012 was a decile 1 year
Yield penalty - 29% Lupin, 41% Wheat
A 4 year rotation including a pasture crop out performed conventional (annual) pasture rotations by ~$60/ha, or $15/ha/yr.
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Rotation Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Av. 4 year Gross Margin
$/ha/yr
L, A, A, A $ 223 $18 $18 $18 $69
PL, P, P, P $71 $87 $87 $87 $83
W, A, A, A -$11 $18 $18 $18 $11
PW, P, P, P -$145 $87 $87 $87 $29
P, P, P, P $87 $87 $87 $87 $87
A, A, A, A $18 $18 $18 $18 $18
James Hagan (2014 CropUpdates)
L = Lupins,
W = Wheat
A = Annual Pasture,
P = Perennial Pasture,
PL = Pasture Cropped Lupins
PW = Pasture Cropped Wheat