Pasture reseach to create yield benefits

This is just one of the impressive figures Dairy Australia is expecting to come out of its $25-million investment into pasture and breeding programs.

DA managing director David Nation, previously the DairyBio and Dairy Feedbase co-director, said the cross-departmental focus on breeding, in partnership with Agriculture Vic, would have big impacts on the productivity of feed and, in-turn, milk output.

At this stage the research is being performed on ryegrass varieties, but he said once the technology was understood, it could potentially translate across to other major pasture varieties.

Dr Nation said there was the potential for pasture yields to lift 20 per cent or more.

“By the end of the decade, (yields) could be up 30pc from what they are now,” he said.

“This is above what really good ryegrass breeding can already do – we’ve got good, steady progress.

“In that environment, to lift by that much, is massive.”

Dr Nation said it was not just improved yields the program was focusing on.

“We want to target multiple traits and lift metabolisable energy up one or two units,” he said.

“We’re also looking at drought and disease tolerance and water and nutrient use efficiency.”

Dr Nation said one of the biggest tools in boosting yields was making use of hybrid vigour.

“Once you’ve cracked the system it has such yield opportunity,” he said.

He said hybrid vigour was only available within the first generation of a cross but by understanding how ryegrass pollinates, it was possible to tap into that result.

“We find elite performing plants that are genetically diverse and can get a 20pc lift straightaway,” he said.

Genomic selection also had the potential to help boost production.

In Hamilton, Vic, a three-year study is being done using 1500 ryegrass-breeding lines, or 270,000 individual plants.

“It’s a field observation of yield in a way never done before,” Dr Nation said.

He said there was already a way for farmers to put some of this knowledge into practice, with the development of a forage value index for perennial ryegrass, which will provide an estimate of the potential of different cultivars.

The FVI was developed using data from nine trial sites, located across Australia.

He said that the better performing cultivars were consistently performing well across all nine sites.

“Across the nine different sites, we did not rerank cultivars,” he said.

Dr Nation said there was a strong future in using the FVI.

“(Farmers should) use the index – it’s available now and it will get better over time,” he said.