Lismore dairy farmer Ken Bryant and NSW DPI district agronomist Kerry Moore check the condition of an Amarillo peanut pasture that Ken says is getting better each year.

Lismore dairy farmer Ken Bryant believes Amarillo peanut could go on to become an extremely valuable summer growing pasture legume for his dairy enterprise.

Ken says the Amarillo demonstration plot sown by NSW DPI on his property in 2003 did nothing spectacular in the two dry years that followed.

'But this season it came on strongly in the good summer and autumn conditions,' he said.

Amarillo peanut is a highly persistent legume compatible with tropical grasses. It can boost the quality of the summer pasture and reduce the need for nitrogen fertiliser, which Ken says is becoming worryingly expensive.

In 2004, he and two neighbours decided to direct drill a little more Amarillo into tropical grass-based pastures after they saw a 20-year-old Amarillo-kikuyu-paspalum pasture thriving on Mark McAnelley’s farm, a little further down the creek.

'It really impressed me how the Amarillo persisted so well under pretty heavy grazing, without much care, and with hardly any fertiliser,' he said.

'Another big plus for Amarillois its tolerance to 2,4-D herbi-cide.'

Ken had this confirmed when he had to spray needle burr in some pasture containing the peanut.

'The 2,4-D set back the peanut a little but it has definitely not killed it,' he said.

Ken says the main drawback with Amarillo was the high cost of seed and its slow establishment.

'Amarillo is not the most prolific of feed producers but I’m hoping this will be offset by its persistence and high feed quality.'

Kerry Moore, NSW DPI district agronomist at Kyogle says Amarillo produces flowers along the stolons and, once fertilised,they 'peg down' seed about five to 10 centimetres deep into the soil.

'Amarillo has potential to setup to a tonne of seed per hectare in a well managed seedcrop,' he said.

'In a grazed pasture it sets up to about 500 kilograms of seeds per hectare - and at about 7000 seeds/kg, this equates to an average of 350 seeds a square metre or an average of three seeds in every 10 by 10 centimetre square.'

Kerry said Amarillo’s potential to produce a huge amount of seed that was capable of rapidly establishing new plants, was one of the legume’s main mechanisms for outstanding persistence on the North Coast.

'The amount of energy it expends on seed production probably cuts back some of its feed production potential, but it gives us a legume that stays permanently in a pasture.

'Unfortunately, we have very few legumes with outstanding persistence.'

Kerry says Amarillo does best in higher rainfall areas, even though its deep root system allows it to survive severe drought.

'Amarillo needs high humidity and adequate soil moisture to make good growth,' he said.

'Light frosts will just burn off the Amarillo leaves.

'Very heavy frosts can kill off stolons but Amarillo will reestablish from stems below ground and from seeds.'

Kerry said Amarillo was adapted to a wide range of soil types but was not recommended for poorly structured clay soils subject to water logging.

'It will tolerate wet periods on well-drained soils,' he said.

Contact: Kerry Moore, Kyogle, 02 6632 1900.