Capertee Valley farmer Wal Thorne has lush summer growing pastures under his feet as another shower starts to speckle his shirt. Recent summer rain in the district has transformed many of the native grasses, lucerne and sub-tropical pastures.

Summer grasses and summer storm rain in 2007 have revitalised the Capertee Valley from a world of drought, dry dams and farmer despair into fields of green.

Farmers there run mainly grazing enterprises with a healthy mix of sub-tropical pasture, native pasture, lucerne, temperate perennial pasture and winter forage crops.

This usually keeps livestock in top condition, providing green feed all year round but like most of the State, the valley has been in severe drought, with very little reprieve since 2002.

However, recent summer rain has transformed many of the native grasses, lucerne and subtropical pastures into lush summer growing pastures.

The quickest growth response by far has been by the sub-tropical pastures, which are producing up to two tonnes per hectare of dry matter in a month.

According to Capertee district farmer Wal Thorne, good dry matter is only one of the advantages of summer growing sub-tropical pasture grasses.

“Sowing summer grass is one of the best things we ever did,” Mr Thorne said.

“It quickly provides ground cover and we get good growth with green feed through summer and no feed gap.”

Mudgee district agronomist, Jenene Kidston, says sub-tropical grasses are well suited to most areas that have warm summers and good summer rainfall.

“A number of species are well suited to a range of soil types and growing conditions,” Ms Kidston said.

“Rhodes grass is well suited to a wide range of soil types from sandy loams to light clays.

“It is moderately drought resistant and spreads by long runners making it a good choice for areas that require stabilising.

“It is also particularly tolerant of soil salinity.”

Digit grass is very palatable and has one of the highest feed values of the sub-tropical grasses.

It is also well suited to a range of soil types tolerating lower fertility, light to medium soils and has good drought tolerance.

According to Ms Kidston, Bambatsi panic is one of the most productive species, well suited to very fertile clay soils.

It is tolerant of waterlogging, and one of the most persistent of the sub-tropical grasses.

Consul lovegrass is a strong growing perennial well suited to light sandy soils, particularly tolerant of soil acidity it also has good drought tolerance.

These attributes make it very useful for rehabilitation of eroded and disturbed sites.

Consul lovegrass also provides strong competition for troublesome summer weeds such as spiny burr grass and blue heliotrope.

Kikuyu is perhaps the best known of the sub-tropical grasses - a hardy prostrate perennial, well suited to fertile, well drained sites with good summer rainfall.

“Runners spread rapidly, making kikuyu a good choice for erosion control and stabilisation of disturbed areas,” Ms Kidston said.

While sub-tropical grasses don’t match the temperate species such as phalaris and ryegrass in feed quality, during their vegetative phase digestibility can be as high as 70 per cent with Metabolisable Energy as high 9.5 (megajoules ME/kg of dry matter), making it productive summer feed for livestock.

Contact Jenene Kidston, Mudgee, (02) 6372 4700, jenene.kidston@dpi.nsw.gov.au