Drought Proofing With Perennial Pasture Plants?

There is summer feed potential from perennials says researcher Dr Daniel Real from the University of Western Australia. He is investigating two such plants which stay green during summer and are traditional forage in the Canary Islands. Trial plantings in WA survived the 2006-07 summer, one of the driest on record.

Some Key Points About Perennial Pastures (pdf P 5)

• A shift to perennial pastures can support grazing systems during extreme drought
• About 50% ground cover during autumn can minimise erosion
• Even at a high stocking rate perennial systems can maintain sufficient ground cover to protect the environment

Profitable Perennials

The 1 July 2007 publication of the Focus On Perennials Quarterly Newsletter – focussing on research and innovation in sustainable farming systems for southern Oz – is produced by the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FFI CRC ).

Throughout the previous life of the Focus newsletter, there had been a shift in strategy in managing dryland salinity and it had become clear that actions to reverse salinity had had little impact.

HOWEVER, there is a bright future for perennial plants in dryland farming systems because of their water-use characteristics.

Research shows these plants can be:

• productive
• adaptable to seasonable variability and drought
• able to fit into catchment strategies that have biodiversity, ground cover and water quality outcomes.

The FFI CRC is so confident in these perennials it has applied to register Profitable Perennials as a brand trademark.

People are saying we have to start doing things differently…