A broad range of new pastures, including perennials and annual legumes, were welcomed by growers at the recent Department of Agriculture, Western Australia (DAWA) Medina Research Station pasture field day.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported site showcased new pastures suited to grain and livestock production and combating salinity.

DAWA researcher Angelo Loi (photo) said biserrula is one species with high potential for Western Australian farming systems.

“A new early season population of biserrula was recently collected on the Canary Islands and selection is currently underway for a new variety.

“There is a strong demand in Western Australia for such an early season variety suited to low rainfall areas and this new variety should meet those demands.

”It has taken more than 10 years to isolate this early variety, highlighting the need for continuing investment into pasture research,” Dr Loi said.

He noted that the new variety would persist and perform better than the current options available in areas receiving under 300 millimetres annual rainfall.   

GRDC Western Panel member and Wubin grower, Merrie Carlshausen said low rainfall growers want a robust pasture legume, which will increase pasture phase productivity.

“If the new biserrula line lives up to the initial expectations of researchers, then this will truly be a valuable part of our pasture phase,” Mrs Carlshausen said.

There are currently two varieties of biserrula available on the global market – Casbah, a mid-season variety suitable for intensive pasture crop rotations and Mauro, a late maturing variety, with lower hard seededness, better suited to extended pasture phases.

Dr Loi explained that biserrula cultivars are suited to fine textured acidic and alkaline soils, including sandy loams and clay loams.

Parallel work will investigate the association between biserrula and photosensitivity in sheep.