Offered Papers Theme A: Efficient Production from Grassland
Description
In the 1950's large areas of native vegetation in the upper south east of South Australia (SA) were replaced with highly productive Hunter River lucerne. This maintained groundwater recharge at near pre-clearing levels. The area of lucerne was reduced dramatically in the late 1970's by a combination of lucerne aphids, wingless grasshoppers and drought. In 1981 severe flooding inundated large areas of the region, causing the saline groundwater to rise to the soil surface. Since that time, dryland salinity has been a feature of the local farming system and salt-tolerant pastures based on puccinellia (Puccinellia ciliata) were widely established. Despite this, few agronomic studies have been conducted on puccinellia to enable management guidelines to be determined. The aim of this experiment was to compare animal and pasture production on volunteer saline pasture and improved saline pasture with and without fertiliser inputs.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Urea Applied to Puccinellia-Based Pastures Increases Pasture and Sheep Production
In the 1950's large areas of native vegetation in the upper south east of South Australia (SA) were replaced with highly productive Hunter River lucerne. This maintained groundwater recharge at near pre-clearing levels. The area of lucerne was reduced dramatically in the late 1970's by a combination of lucerne aphids, wingless grasshoppers and drought. In 1981 severe flooding inundated large areas of the region, causing the saline groundwater to rise to the soil surface. Since that time, dryland salinity has been a feature of the local farming system and salt-tolerant pastures based on puccinellia (Puccinellia ciliata) were widely established. Despite this, few agronomic studies have been conducted on puccinellia to enable management guidelines to be determined. The aim of this experiment was to compare animal and pasture production on volunteer saline pasture and improved saline pasture with and without fertiliser inputs.
