Improved Saltland Pastures Lifts SA Woolgrowers Profits

_This project is now complete. For further information go to the [Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands](http://landwaterwool.gov.au/index.php?q=subprogram/6) section_.

A new woolgrower-led project is underway in the Kingston region of the Upper South-East aimed at boosting productivity from saltland pastures.

Run by the Kingston Salinity Group, the project will help woolgrowers to conserve and improve productivity from saline land through better grazing and fertiliser management.

According to SGSL Producer Network Project Officer Jock McFarlane, from Rural Solutions SA, about 40 per cent of properties in the Kingston region are affected by waterlogging and salinity.

Jock said in the past five years, many woolgrowers had established salt-tolerant pastures such as tall wheat grass and puccinellia to improve productivity from the marginal areas on their properties.

“But they did not anticipate the grazing management problems, particularly with tall wheat grass. If it’s not grazed heavily enough and left to grow unchecked through spring and summer, tall wheat grass can turn rank and will be unpalatable for livestock,” Jock said.

“In addition, previous work had shown improved pasture growth rates from tall wheat grass and puccinellia through better phosphorus and nitrogen management.

“We aim to investigate how productive saltland pastures can be when the appropriate fertiliser and grazing management is applied. We are working with local woolgrowers to demonstrate that these saline areas can contribute to the overall productivity and profitability of their farms.”

The project currently involves eight farms in the Kingston region. One of the woolgrowers involved in the project is Charlie Bruce, who owns a 2500 hectare property near Kingston running a self-replacing Merino flock and a herd of Angus cattle. The property’s annual average annual rainfall is about 525 millimetres.

Charlie, who is also the co-ordinator of the Kingston Salinity Group, estimates he has about 600 ha of low-producing land affected by waterlogging and salinity where a mix of tall wheat grass and puccinellia pastures have been planted.

Project support officer, Ben Fleet, also from the Rural Solutions SA at Struan, said a 40 ha paddock of tall wheat grass at the main demonstration site at Ashmore (a property owned by the McBride family) was subdivided to compare the response of the pasture.

“Half the paddock received a standard application of single super followed by an additional application of 25 kilograms/ha of nitrogen,” he said.

“The remaining 20 ha control portion received the same standard single super application but no nitrogen fertiliser.”

Rotational grazing of sheep and cattle at different stocking rates was also being compared across both treatments to evaluate the impact on tall wheat grass pasture growth.

“Small plot project sites have been established on seven other farms in the Kingston region to assess the response of the tall wheat grass and puccinellia pastures to phosphorus and nitrogen and a combination of both fertilisers, applied at the break of the season,” said Ben.

“We are also working with growers to calculate pasture dry matter production in kilograms per hectare using pasture cages at each trial site, with pasture cuts taken at different times of the year.”

Ben said although further work was needed, preliminary trial results from last season indicated additional fertiliser applications could have a range of potential benefits such as increased pasture growth, ground cover and carrying capacity.

“Tall wheat grass and puccinellia offer both high quality feed for livestock and can boost the productivity of our saline land,” he said. “Last year, the additional application of nitrogen on our trial site increased dry matter production from the saltland pastures by 2 t/ha. This equates to a productivity increase of approximately 2 DSE/ha or an additional gross margin of around $80/ha.

“We hope these project results will provide guidelines for woolgrowers on appropriate stocking rates and grazing times as well as fertiliser rates and timing of application on saltland pastures.”

Charlie Bruce is confident that with improved fertiliser and grazing management the stocking rates on his saltland pastures could potentially be doubled from the current five sheep/ha up to 10 sheep/ha.

“We have got the moisture and can achieve significant spring growth from the tall wheat grass and puccinellia pastures but they do seem to struggle during autumn and winter,” Charlie said.

“I believe the project results will be applicable to a wide range of woolgrowers in other regions throughout southern Australia where salinity is a potential problem.”

First published December 2004.