Legumes in the spotlight for Tasmanian project

The five-year project will help identify and establish perennial legume species which could be used to fill feed gaps in high and low rainfall areas.

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture research fellow Dr Rowan Smith will lead the $1.5 million project and hopes it will drive resilience and profitability through a series of experiments.

"The idea of this project is to highlight there's still gains to be made in feeding rain-fed pastures," Dr Smith, who has researched pastures for eight years, said.

Surveys by the TIA show that legume components in Tasmanian pastures are particularly low and have received limited attention from primary producers who may have focused on developing or enhancing infrastructure and pastures through irrigation.

"Depending on the stock class that farmers are grazing, we could potentially turn finishing stock off quicker or we can use an improved feed base to condition stock at critical times of the year," Dr Smith said.

A focus of the project is to help mixed farming enterprises integrate both dryland and irrigated pastures to create a whole farm system approach by increasing the use of legumes.

"About 10 years ago we did a study looking at the composition of Tasmanian pastures and we found only about 30 per cent of pasture was productive with species that were in good condition," Dr Smith said.

"The turnover of sowing new pastures is lower than it could be and in some cases during droughts experienced here in Tasmanian, soil fertility has declined."

The project will take a region-focused approach to improve the proportion of legumes in the high rainfall regions of the north-west coast and low-medium rainfall region of the Tasmanian Midlands.

"The Tasmanian Midlands has seen recent transformational irrigation developments that have allowed the finishing of lambs in a traditionally wool and lamb sourcing region," Dr Smith said.

"However, only around 10 per cent of the area is irrigated, and there is significant potential to improve the surrounding dryland grazing country to increase stocking rates."

He said legumes were known for bringing in a "quality aspect" to the feed base, and would ultimately drive red meat production.

"In low-to-medium rainfall environments there are fewer legume species options as many fail to establish and persist, so maintaining high legume content in dryland pastures can be a challenge for producers," Dr Smith said.

"By successfully establishing perennial legumes, producers can extend their growing seasons beyond what is currently being achieved and enhance the resilience of their feed base to the changing and variable climate."

A number of different sowing methods will be trialed by researchers including spacial and temporal separation of grass and legume components to improve mixed pastures.

In the first three years of the project, researchers will trial half-a-dozen experiments before the findings are implemented across about 10 properties in the final two years.

"The dairy industry is quite advanced in their feed base work in terms of grazing management and species but red meat has probably still got a way to go in terms of the quality of pastures," Dr Smith said.

"We know that if we can lift the legume component, we can also lift productivity because we know legumes not only fill feed gaps but they also improve nutritional quality.

"Things can be good in theory, but we want to make sure what we propose is economical and practical for farmers to implement."

The research will consider what techniques help establish pastures with optimal legume content to improve the quality of pasture for longer during growing season.

"We will also be investigating how to effectively re-establish legumes in grass-dominant pastures, potentially removing the need and risk of a full pasture renovation," he said.

Most of the work in the Midlands will help improve pastures for sheep graziers, while in the north-west the primary focus will be on beef production.

The project is will begin this month with spring sowings of experiments in the Midlands.

The project is funded by Meat & Livestock Australia, the TIA and is part of the Livestock Productivity Partnership.

The partnership is a collaboration involving the MLA, TIA, NSW Department of Primary Industries, University of New England, University of Melbourne, and CSIRO, aimed at boosting livestock productivity and developing new R&D capacity.

Tasmanian producer Simon Foster, who owns Fosterville Pastoral, a mixed farming business west of Campbell Town, said maintaining the legume component in his pastures was an ongoing challenge.

"I really noticed the issue 12 to 13 years ago when I started to look at the species mix in our pastures," he said.

"We need this research to give us practical and cost-effective ways to re-establish the legumes.

"Increasing the legume component in our pastures will absolutely increase the productivity and profitability of our grazing business."