Breeding nursery for perennial grasses

Plant breeding

The Station is a breeding station for perennial grasses and legumes. The Station is NSW (and Australia’s) sole dry-land pasture research station located in the high rainfall ‘Temperate Perennial Grass/Perennial Legume Zone’, and is a national breeding station for the perennial legumes white clover, tall fescue and tropical grasses. The current focus is on extending the zone of adaptation of improved pasture species to low rainfall environments, and on developing drought tolerant varieties that will be adapted to the hotter and drier conditions expected to accompany prospective climate change.

White clover breeding

Sheep production in the Australian temperate perennial pasture zone is constrained by the lack of reliable perennial pasture legumes. Summer moisture stress is the main constraint to reliable legume-based pasture production in Australia. Recent white clover breeding has focussed on adaptation to high rainfall environments (850-1,000 mm AAR). Developing cultivars that have the ability to persist and produce herbage in lower rainfall environments (650-850 mm AAR) will expand the white clover zone.

Tall fescue

Tall fescue is the most widely sown grass on the Northern Tablelands. The tall fescue program based at the station has evaluated exotic and local ecotypes of tall fescue to develop cultivars for the Northern Tablelands and more marginal tall fescue growing areas (<700 mm AAR). Three synthetic tall fescue varieties have been developed with improved persistence, summer and winter yield. These lines will be released commercially from 2011.

Tropical grasses

As rainfall becomes more variable, the area sown to tropical grasses (better suited to low-medium rainfall and higher temperatures) is likely to increase. The tropical grass improvement program conducted from the station has identified ‘elite’ lines of Megathyrsus maximus and Panicum coloratum. These lines have excellent persistence, adapted to a wider range of soil types, produce considerably higher biomass than the best commercial varieties. Feed quality is on the upper end for tropical grasses and is suitable for growing stock. It is expected that 2-3 new cultivars will be released from 2011.

Agronomy research

Agronomy research at the Station specialises in:

• increasing the persistence of new varieties, 
• improving the feed-base for sheep and cattle in temperate grazing systems, and, 
• providing natural resource management enhancements to the pastoral landscape.

Chilean needle grass – regional best practice management

A set of five sites spanning the range of Chilean needle grass in Australia from Victoria to northern New South Wales is being established to identify and demonstrate regional best practice management of this weed of national significance.

Soils/Sustainability

One of Australia's longest running crop rotation experiments (established in 1921) located at GI ARAS has been tracking the long-term effects of farming systems on soil fertility for more than eighty years. Over 80 years, the experiment has demonstrated that the inclusion of a legume ley in the crop sequence is essential for maintaining crop productivity, soil fertility, soil physical attributes and soil biological activity.

Of particular interest has been the measurement of organic matter and soil carbon since the 1930’s from the long-term rotation experiment at GI ARAS. Soil carbon is of fundamental importance to soil health/fertility and therefore to sustainable agriculture as it affects all three aspects of soil fertility, namely chemical, physical and biological fertility.

This experiment has greatly strengthened the understanding of how differing farming systems influences soil carbon and the way that this important soil parameter has changed over time. On average, the rotations that contain a clover phase had 45% more soil carbon after 80 years of treatment. In 2010 soil carbon data was collected to add to the existing data set. 

Beef cattle research

Cattle research is done in collaboration with the Beef CRC in Armidale

Modern cattle handling facilities and highly improved pastures are maintained at the station to support collaborative research with the Beef CRC and the Beef Industry Centre.

Recent research achievements include the development of ‘backgrounding’ technology and feed efficiency with beef cattle, and the demonstration of the economic benefits of selection for improved muscling in beef cattle, including use of the myostatin ('double-muscling') gene.

Selection for methane production

Livestock, mainly beef cattle and sheep on pasture, with smaller contributions from dairy and feedlot cattle, contribute 70% of agricultural green-house gas emissions, and agriculture contributes around 16% of Australia’s total emissions.

Glen Innes is presently running a herd of approximately 220 Angus cows and their female followers, in the research project titled ‘Genetic improvement of beef cattle for green-house gas outcomes’ conducted by Dr Kath Donoghue of Trangie ARC. The project is studying the genetic variation between Angus research herds that differ in methane production to evaluate and demonstrate the potential for breeding cattle for reduced methane emissions without compromising animal performance.

Selection for high and low muscled cattle

This project aims to examine the effect of selection for increased muscling on herd productivity and profitability via:

• Progeny growth
• Progeny carcase attributes – muscle score and fat depth
• Female productivity

This research is part of the Animal Genetics Unit.

Sheep & wool

Glen Innes ARAS is a centre for beef and sheep production

Methane Sheep

The Station runs a small breeding flock of approximately 200 ewes that are being evaluated for methane output as an adjunct to the larger cattle project.

Neo-natal Lamb survival and reproduction rate

This is a cooperative project with the Sheep CRC. The project has reviewed current knowledge on lamb survival and identified regional management practices and evaluated previous extension of lamb survival adoption methodologies. New approaches to adoption focused on the pregnancy scanning industry are now being used as a means of reaching a different cross-section of producers.

Optimising reproductive capacity in sheep flock

A publication and workshop with notes has been developed that demonstrate how producers can optimise flock reproduction (best practice). The project covers areas that have an impact on reproductive performance including: nutrition, ewe and ram fertility and management and overall flock management and production targets. The workshop targets improving lamb survival at or around birth.

A Managing Scanned Ewes workshop has been developed which improves producer knowledge on getting the best result from the pregnancy scanning information provided by the scanning contractor. To date 47 workshops have been held for clients of scanning contractors and 970 producers who run 2.06m sheep have attended these activities.

Wether trial

The project aims are:

• To assess the economic performance of various merino bloodlines run under identical conditions on the Northern Tablelands.
• Demonstrate characters of commercial importance.
• Provide a forum for exchange of ideas between producers and others involved in the wool industry.

The current trial has 23 teams of ten wethers and it is now leading up to its last shearing in November 2011.

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