KNOWN for its weed-like qualities and determination to spread ruthlessly throughout backyards, kikuyu grass is not usually linked with pasture and livestock operations. Not so on Kangaroo Island where Parndana sheep stud farmer Andrew Heinrich has been using the sub-tropical plant for four years as a perennial resistant to drought.
Andrew took an interest in kikuyu after finding out that his perennial pastures were not standing up to the incessant drought years that scorched south east Australia until last year.
Lucerne, with its acidic soil, was not an option for Andrew and he needed an alternative.
"Kikuyu appealed to us. Everyone whinged about how dominant it was in people's gardens so I thought it would be persistent," he said.
Since planting, kikuyu has been providing a dense coverage that has been particularly useful on hillier country that tends to wash out and erode with opening rains.
"In the 2006-07 drought, we started confinement feeding to lessen erosion on our farm but we now believe that paddocks of kikuyu will replace confinement feeding," Andrew said.
Kikuyu has stood up to drought and grown persistently despite dry periods, providing green feed for Andrew's stock and a supply that has proved more reliable than other perennials.
"This time last year there was no rain and it was growing from heavy dews, so we think it's exciting. It seems to handle heavy grazing well and that is what excites me about it," he said.
"We usually have to continuously nurse perennials and rotate them but with kikuyu, we can load it up with stock and it persists."
The plant has proved so useful that after initially planting kikuyu to 40 hectares, Andrew is now looking to expand its coverage to 300ha or one third of his 800ha farm which includes White Suffolks and Merinos, a commercial flock and a few cows.
Andrew has also capitalised on the grass' erosion control this year by planting it to his laneways to prevent them from becoming bare during summer due to high traffic.
"I think it will be great in a wool enterprise as well," Andrew said.
"It will keep dust out of the wool and I believe that being on a constant green, its tensile strength will improve.
"On an even plan of green feed, I reckon it will lift our wool production as well."
Andrew plants kikuyu at two kilograms/ha in late September after spraying paddocks for a thorough winter kill.
With seeds costing $41.50/kg, Andrew takes no chances and sprays the sown pasture with insecticides. The slow-growing kikuyu does not gain momentum until November when soil temperatures increase.
For established kikuyu, Andrew says, the big secret is to keep it short during summer and autumn in order to get good winter feed. Otherwise, the grass tends to matt, resulting in what Andrew calls a "bedding" effect that offers little winter growth or pasture until temperatures rise again.
Though kikuyu has a reputation for growing fast and furious outside of winter dormancy, Andrew is not concerned about the grass spreading beyond its designated confines.
He stocks his farm with 15 Dry Sheep Equivalent/ha and finds this is enough to keep the grass down.
"But if we had the whole farm planted to kikuyu it would be a problem," Andrew said.
"Laneways get a lot of traffic both from stock and from driving over it, so that will keep it down there as well."
Perhaps Rural Solutions SA staff are adding to that traffic on Andrew's farm as they conduct pasture cropping trial work using kikuyu as a base and seed a standing crop of peas and oats into it to boost winter and early spring feed production.
The work is being funded by Agriculture Kangaroo Island, which Andrew chairs, and is supported by the Federal Government's Farming Future Initiative.
Andrew said the process had been to graze down the kikuyu to the soil, spray it to "knock it about" and then sow a crop into it.
*Full report in Stock Journal, May 5 issue, 2011.
