October 16, 2003
The Western Australian
Department of Agriculture has achieved a world first in
pasture development with the commercialisation of two new
cultivars of hard seeded French serradella.
Director
General Graeme Robertson today announced at the Medina Research
Station Field Day that commercial seed of the new varieties
Margurita and Erica would be
available to growers next season.
Dr Robertson
said the new serradellas represented a major advance for
pastures grown on sandy soils in WA and were expected to have a
major commercial impact, both domestically and in export trade.
“They are the
first cultivars of hardseeded French serradella commercialised
anywhere in the world and will be registered under Plant
Breeders Rights,” Dr Robertson said.
“The hard seed
character in these cultivars will enable them to be used in crop
rotations and also protect the seed reserves from germination
during out of season rainfall.
“They will be
suitable for use over large areas of the wheatbelt, not only for
sandplain soils high in the landscape, but also for mid and
lower slope soils.”
Dr Robertson
said in economic terms, the use of serradella:cereal crop
rotations on sandplain soils could deliver a benefit of between
$10 and $50 per hectare, over unimproved pasture.
He said cereal
grain yields and grain protein were considerably higher after
serradella pasture largely as a consequence of the soil nitrogen
accumulated through the nitrogen fixation process peculiar to
legume plants.
Department of
Agriculture research officer Brad Nutt said the two new
cultivars had been developed by mass selection for
hardseededness from the cultivar Cadiz.
“Despite the
popularity of Cadiz for its high levels of productivity and
harvestability, the lack of hardseededness of French serradella,
until now, has meant the longevity of the seed bank and the
rotational application of the species were limited,” Mr Nutt
said.
He said
Margurita was similar in appearance to Cadiz and was likely to
be used for conserved fodder production. Erica was likely to be
more tolerant of grazing.
Both lines
produced yellow seeds compared to the usually brown seeds of
Cadiz.
The new
cultivars have been registered under Plant Breeder’s Rights and
were released to licenced producers for the 2003 growing season.
Commercial seed will be available to growers in 2004. |