Description
An accession of the annual legume Trigonella balansae Boiss. and Reuter. has been selected for commercial release in Australia. The annual legume has significant potential as a self-regenerating pasture within mixed farming systems. As part of a duty-of-care assessment, we tested the hypothesis that sheep grazing the trigonella cultivar will have similar liveweight, condition scores, health and wool production to sheep grazing two widely adopted annual legumes, subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L. cv Dalkeith) and French serradella (Ornithopus sativus Brot. cv. Erica). Forage dry matter digestibility (DMD), crude protein (CP), fibre, mineral content and isoflavones were measured across the plant’s lifecycle. The data supported the hypotheses and there were no significant differences in liveweight, wool growth, wool yield or condition score that were associated with pasture species. The mineral content of trigonella requires further investigation.
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Domestication of the Annual Legume Trigonella balansae for Mixed Farming Systems in Southern Australia
An accession of the annual legume Trigonella balansae Boiss. and Reuter. has been selected for commercial release in Australia. The annual legume has significant potential as a self-regenerating pasture within mixed farming systems. As part of a duty-of-care assessment, we tested the hypothesis that sheep grazing the trigonella cultivar will have similar liveweight, condition scores, health and wool production to sheep grazing two widely adopted annual legumes, subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L. cv Dalkeith) and French serradella (Ornithopus sativus Brot. cv. Erica). Forage dry matter digestibility (DMD), crude protein (CP), fibre, mineral content and isoflavones were measured across the plant’s lifecycle. The data supported the hypotheses and there were no significant differences in liveweight, wool growth, wool yield or condition score that were associated with pasture species. The mineral content of trigonella requires further investigation.
