Evergreen
The Evergreen program is investigating and encouraging the use of tropical and sub-tropical perennial pastures to alleviate issues such as salinity, whilst increasing the feed profile.
Evergreen Farming Inc was established in 1997 by a group of farmers interested in increasing the use of perennial pastures in south-west WA.
Farms in south-west WA are predominantly sown with annual pasture which provide a flush of feed in spring but often result in feed gaps through late summer and autumn.
These annual systems have relatively low water use and leak excess water to the groundwater system. The excess water is discharged in low-lying areas of the landscape which quickly become salinised.
Increasing the quantity of perennial pastures in the system will increase water use, improve the feed profile and reduce the impact of salinity in the landscape. Salinity affects two million ha in WA and five million ha nationally.
In recent years on-farm demonstrations of tropical and sub-tropical (C4) perennial grasses, such as Rhodes, Panic, Signal and Splenda Setaria and Kikuyu, have demonstrated increased water use, dry matter production and reduced leakage to groundwater. Evergreen believe that these C4 perennial grasses offer great potential to increase the productivity of farming systems and can significantly decrease current and potential impact of salinisation in WA.
The AWI funded Evergreen project is conducting commercial validation trials to investigate;
- The performance of C4 perennial grasses in south west WA
- Establishment techniques for C4 perennial grasses with an emphasis on weed control, time of sowing and sowing method.
- The effect of grazing management on animal performance and pasture persistence.
- Water use under C4 perennial grass pastures compared to annual pasture.
Resources
Contact
Ms Lu Hogan
Program Manager Sustainable Production Systems
Tel: +61 2 8295 3100
Contact via email