Developing drought resilient pastures

The impacts of climate change and sustained periods of dry conditions in Australia is putting stress on the pasture feedbase for livestock production on farms throughout the country, including here in Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) is part of a national project, Pasture 365, which has the aim of finding forage mixes that result in drought resilient pastures and could potentially provide feed for all 365 days of the year. 

The Tasmanian component of the project is being led by TIA Senior Research Fellow Dr Rowan Smith.

TIA has established two experimental sites in Tasmania at Campbell Town and Pipers River. Overall, there are nine experimental sites around Australia where a range of pasture mixes will be evaluated in both high and low rainfall regions.

“We’re looking to see if we can find some pasture species mixes that are more resilient to extended and more regular periods of dry times,” Dr Smith said.

“In many regions, livestock producers rely on just a small number of pasture species for their grazing livestock.

“It’s been more common for farmers to focus on two or three species. More recently in cover cropping and regenerative practises it’s become popular to sow a much bigger and wider range of species. We want to see whether that will work in a perennial pasture system.”

The five-year project will evaluate both simple and complex pasture mixes and assess productivity.

It’s hoped the project will address shortages in summer feed for livestock and increase the resilience of grazing enterprises to cope with droughts and climate change.

The trial site at Pipers River in Tasmania’s north-east is a medium to high rainfall zone.

“In the high rainfall zone, like at Pipers River, it’s common to sow perennial ryegrass and white clover so we’re using that as our benchmark,” Dr Smith said.

“We’re trialling diverse mixes and we’re altering the amounts of legume species, grass species and herbs in those mixes.

“Building a complete feedbase may require a number of species mixes and crops, suited to the grazing enterprise.”

The other site at Campbell Town is representative of a low rainfall environment. A different range of species has been sown there, known for their drought resilience.

The experiments are being conducted on commercial farms and involve a high level of experimentation, measurement and monitoring.

“Particularly across northern Tasmania in the last 18 months we’ve seen extended dry periods,” Dr Smith said.