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.