Publication Date
1989
Description
In south-western Australia merino sheep are the primary animal industry. Optimum stocking rates dictate that farmers must budget to hand feed grain to their sheep in late summer/autumn to guarantee their survival and production of a good quality fleece. Income is from wool and sale of surplus animals. The annual production of wool and lambs is largely constrained by the Mediterranean-type climate. Typically the summer drought lasts 3 to 7 months. In summer the dry annual pastures are low in crude protein (around 9 %) and digestibility (around 50 %) and this is associated with a low rate of wool growth over summer and poor reproductive performance. Tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) is an evergreen shrub which is extremely drought tolerant and grows readily in poor sandy soils in south-western Australia. Limited evidence suggests it may have a feeding value for wool production far greater than dry pasture (Borens and Poppi, 1986; Oldham et al., 1989). An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the feeding value for wool production of tagasaste grazed by young merino sheep over summer/autumn was higher than the traditional system of dry annual pasture over summer plus grain feeding in autumn.
Citation
Oldham, C M. and Morre, P M., "Tagaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis), An Evergreen Fodder Tree, in Grazing Systems of Mediterranean Type Climates 2. The Feeding Value of Tagasaste for Wool Production when Grazed by Young Merino Ewes over Summer and Autumn" (2025). IGC Proceedings (1989-2023). 69.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/1989/session10/69
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Tagaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis), An Evergreen Fodder Tree, in Grazing Systems of Mediterranean Type Climates 2. The Feeding Value of Tagasaste for Wool Production when Grazed by Young Merino Ewes over Summer and Autumn
In south-western Australia merino sheep are the primary animal industry. Optimum stocking rates dictate that farmers must budget to hand feed grain to their sheep in late summer/autumn to guarantee their survival and production of a good quality fleece. Income is from wool and sale of surplus animals. The annual production of wool and lambs is largely constrained by the Mediterranean-type climate. Typically the summer drought lasts 3 to 7 months. In summer the dry annual pastures are low in crude protein (around 9 %) and digestibility (around 50 %) and this is associated with a low rate of wool growth over summer and poor reproductive performance. Tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) is an evergreen shrub which is extremely drought tolerant and grows readily in poor sandy soils in south-western Australia. Limited evidence suggests it may have a feeding value for wool production far greater than dry pasture (Borens and Poppi, 1986; Oldham et al., 1989). An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the feeding value for wool production of tagasaste grazed by young merino sheep over summer/autumn was higher than the traditional system of dry annual pasture over summer plus grain feeding in autumn.
