Project Overview
Investment:
Meat and Livestock Australia
Project Duration:
Three years (2020-2023)
Project Host(s):
To be confirmed. Currently sourcing trial hosts.
Project Aim
To develop three sites, each year for three years, to demonstrate and quantify the benefits of dual-purpose crops into mixed farm systems to address the autumn/winter feed gap. To establish the optimal grazing window to minimise yield penalties and quantify stock weight gains from the grazing of crops compared to pasture.
Preliminary Findings:
This project was deferred until 2020 due to the late start to the 2019 cropping year. Crops were too immature to be grazed in autumn/early winter as the project requires. We are currently looking for three hosts farms for these produce demonstration sites for the coming year.
The finding of legacy P at depth in these soil types promotes the discussion for the need to change and expand soil sampling procedure and protocols to better understand and advise on fertiliser-P requirements.