Project Details
Project Delivery: Evergreen Farming Inc
Contact: Erin Gorter
Phone: 0429 833 752
Email: erin.gorter@agvivo.com.au
Website: www.evergreen.asn.au
Supporting Organisation: Northern Agricultural Catchments Council
Website: www.nacc.com.au
Start Date: November 2014 End Date: May 2016
Site ID: 1512-05-06
Size Are Ha: 80
Project Aim
One of the barriers to adoption of perennial pastures is the cost of establishment, typically $150-200 per hectare. Given this high cost, farmers are reluctant to re-sow perennial pastures that either failed to establish initially due to poor seasonal conditions or have thinned out over time due to overgrazing.
This project will demonstrate an innovative method to improve the productivity of perennial pasture stands with sub-optimal density.
Methodology
Three (3) low density perennial pasture stands will be manipulated with herbicide in 2014 to kill the annual component of the pasture (a mix of grass and broadleaf weeds). This will allow new perennial pasture seedlings to germinate and establish without competition from annual weeds. These new perennial pasture seedlings will germinate from seed set by the existing low density perennial pasture over previous years. Over the last 5 to 10 years a number of farmers and researchers have observed new perennial pasture seedlings germinating from previous seed set, but no one has ever tried to use this process strategically to thicken up a thin stand.
A series of monitoring sites will be established within each paddock to monitor perennial pasture density over time. Plant counts and photo monitoring will take place every 2 months over the first summer (while the paddock is de-stocked) and thereafter every 6 months until the project winds up in May 2016.
This project is being delivered by Evergreen Farming Inc and is supported by Northern Agricultural Catchments Council through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme.
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