pasture cropping in the northern agricultural region david ferris, dafwa supporting your success

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



Focus research site - Moora

Test the viability of pasture-cropping

Quantify performance across sites

Define adoptability issues

Develop decision tools

2008 to 2014 - update



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.


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


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)


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


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


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


-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


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)


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);


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.


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


Pasture CropBarley over subtropical perennial grass

Grant Bain - Walkaway


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


Pasture cropping


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


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


Thank youVisit agric.wa.gov.au


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.


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

pasture cropping in the northern agricultural region david ferris, dafwa supporting your success

Documents