Perennial pastures in cropping systems of southern Australia: an overview of present and future research

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-7-2014

Journal Title

Crop and Pasture Science

ISSN

ISSN 1836-0947 eISSN 1836-5795

Keywords

Competition, Crops, Economics, Forage, Natural resources, Perennial pastures, Shrubs

Disciplines

Agribusiness | Agricultural Economics | Agricultural Science | Agronomy and Crop Sciences | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Monitoring | Natural Resource Economics | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Plant Biology | Risk Analysis | Soil Science | Systems Science

Abstract

Addressing the opportunities and challenges for integrating perennial forages and shrubs into the mixed crop–livestock farming systems of southern Australia has been the focus of the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre EverCrop project. This overview discusses the use of perennial plants in cropping landscapes in terms of the concepts of ‘rotation, separation and integration’ and highlights the contribution of papers in this special issue of Crop and Pasture Science across a range of biophysical and socioeconomic factors. Drivers for the inclusion of perennial forage plants include salinity management, groundcover maintenance and filling seasonal feed gaps, and this need will continue as mixed crop–livestock systems evolve in the context of managing business risk and a requirement for better natural resource management outcomes.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS
 

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1071/CP14040