Offered Papers Theme C: Delivering the Benefits from Grassland
Description
Since the 1930s, crop/pasture rotation systems have been used in the wheat-sheep belt of temperate southern Australia to maintain the productivity and environmental sustainability of farming systems (Puckridge & French, 1983). Yet, in the northern grain belt of Australia, there is limited adoption of ley pastures, owing to inherently fertile and well-structured vertisol soils. However, soil fertility decline now costs the grain industry about $450 m per year. Legume-based leys are an option for improving soil OM and N and providing other benefits to cropping and livestock production systems (Lloyd et al., 1991). Despite strong one-on-one extension processes since the 1950s, the adoption of crop/pasture rotation systems is less than one-tenth of that in southern Australia.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
LeyGrain: A Participatory Action-Learning Model for Ley Pastures in Cropping Systems
Since the 1930s, crop/pasture rotation systems have been used in the wheat-sheep belt of temperate southern Australia to maintain the productivity and environmental sustainability of farming systems (Puckridge & French, 1983). Yet, in the northern grain belt of Australia, there is limited adoption of ley pastures, owing to inherently fertile and well-structured vertisol soils. However, soil fertility decline now costs the grain industry about $450 m per year. Legume-based leys are an option for improving soil OM and N and providing other benefits to cropping and livestock production systems (Lloyd et al., 1991). Despite strong one-on-one extension processes since the 1950s, the adoption of crop/pasture rotation systems is less than one-tenth of that in southern Australia.
