Pastures

Pastures play a major role in agricultural enterprises and contribute over $3 billion annually in Western Australia through animal production, improvements to crop rotations and conserved fodder. In a typical year pastures occupy up to half the land in low to medium rainfall areas and over two thirds of the land in high rainfall areas. Improved pastures are increasingly being used to play a more comprehensive role in farming systems to address emerging challenges for environment protection and food production.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is a world leader in pasture breeding and selection, grazing systems design and agronomic management of pastures. The department provides information, tools and resources to support the success of the agriculture sector in improving the productivity and profitability of pasture systems under both dryland and irrigated conditions. 

Articles

  • SnapCard is a combined smartphone and website app, is free and was developed to assist growers and crop consultants to make smarter decisions on when and how to apply pesticides most efficiently.

  • FEED365 is a four-year project (2021–2025) under the SheepLinks program that engages sheep producers and allied industries to re-design livestock forage systems for grazing

  • Climate change is a pressing global issue that creates both challenges and opportunities for Western Australia.

  • FutureSheep is a three-year project (2021-2024) under the SheepLinks program, to assist Western Australian (WA) sheep enterprises in the medium and low rainfall zones adapt to the impacts of projec

  • Isolated cases of photosensitisation have occurred in sheep grazing both Casbah and Mauro biserrula throughout the wheatbelt.

  • Bacterial wilt of lucerne (Clavibacter insidiosus) is a disease that reduces the lifespan and productivity of lucerne stands. It also makes lucerne crops hard to establish.

  • Cultivars of French serradella (Eliza, Cadiz, Erica and Margurita) and yellow serradella (Charano, Santorini and Yelbini) have been developed with the aim of reducing the cost of seed production.

  • The Northern Beef Development program aims to support the Western Australian northern beef industry to become more profitable, resilient, and sustainable.

  • Buffel and birdwood grasses (Cenchrus ciliaris and C.

  • Producers in the West Midlands region are reminded to closely monitor sandy soils, as conditions from the 2021 season continue to create groundcover challenges in 2022. 

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