Addressing Climate Change & Soil Constraints with Diverse Pasture Systems (A16099) addressed soil salinity and low soil organic matter.

A sustainable land use option to deal with these multiple challenges is a diverse forage system that includes drought-hardy perennial, native shrubs in combination with mixed-species pastures. A diverse combination of plants can extend the season with green feed, and can increase total biomass productivity. Recent overseas research has shown that the higher biomass of diverse pastures is associated with an increase in soil organic carbon. It appears that combinations of plant species – potentially including annual and perennial species – can have beneficial effects in the soil.

April 2017 to April 2018

This project was funded by State NRM.