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This week we are going to be talking about the EverGraze project.

There is great scope to develop grazing options for our high rainfall zone that are genuinely attractive to farmers and provide positive outcomes for paddocks and across regions.

But to achieve this we need to go beyond just growing more and better pastures. We need to be using more productive animals on a perennial feedbase, matching the perennials to landscape conditions, maintaining groundcover and managing water use.

But the real key to your uptake of new systems is their profitability and reliability and the EverGraze project is showing that new perennial grazing systems can increase profits from livestock while at the same time improving soil and paddock health.

EverGraze is looking at the science and the practical on-farm application of new livestock grazing systems using more perennial pastures at six research sites (called Proof Sites) and more that 50 demonstration (Supporting) Sites across the high rainfall zone of southern Australia.

In South Australia EverGraze activities are linked to research at Proof Sites at Hamilton in Western Victoria and Albany in Western Australia, where the focus is on reducing recharge and improving soil health through the use of summer active perennials such as tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, lucerne, chicory and kikuyu.  At Hamilton, three pasture systems are being tested:

• a current best practice system,
• a triple pasture system
• and a novel pasture system.

In the triple pasture system, perennial ryegrass is replaced with lucerne on the crests and tall fescue on the valleys. While in the novel system, chicory is used on the crests, Italian ryegrass on slopes and kikuyu on the valleys.  At the WA site East of Albany, EverGraze is studying the use of perennial pasture systems such as kikuyu in a region where annual crops and pastures are the norm.

Across Australia, a variety of support sites have been established.
They provide an opportunity to demonstrate EverGraze concepts and research outcomes on farmin local environments where the results are much more relevant to farmers.

Further information specific to each of the sites will be presented in coming months. EverGraze partners are Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation and the Future Farm Industries CRC, with collaboration from state & local groups.  EverGraze information, including fact sheets on kikuyu, chicory and tall fescue can be found at on their website. You can also register there for regular email updates of the EverGraze program and activities.

For further information on this story or any edition of Agritalk, please visit www.ruralsolutions.sa.gov.au, click on news, then radio.  You will find a transcript of the program along with lots of handy links to the things discussed.

Information kindly supplied by Nick Edwards, SARDI