Research interests

• Role of pastures in farming systems
• Pasture species evaluation and improvement
• Crop and pasture agronomy

Background

Alison Bowman is the Research Leader for Southern and Central Farming Systems and the Director of the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, NSW Department of Primary Industries' Centre of Excellence for Southern Farming Systems and Viticulture. She is also currently the Program Leader for the Cropping Systems Program in the new funded national Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre.

Alison joined NSW Agriculture* in 1989 as the Research Agronomist (Pastures) based at Walgett in northern NSW. She has also worked as a Research Agronomist at Grafton and Trangie developing specialities in pasture species evaluation and more recently in the role of pastures in cropping systems, particularly in nitrogen fixation.

In 2003 she moved to management as the Program Leader Southern Farming Systems leading the District Agronomists and Farming Systems team in southern NSW based at Wagga. Currently as Research Leader she manages a research group that work in both dryland and irrigated farming systems, particularly rice based systems.

NSW Department of Primary Industries was formed on July 1, 2004 through an amalgamation of NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries, State Forests of NSW and the NSW Department of Mineral Resources.

Qualifications

• BScAgr (Hons, Syd Uni)
• PhD (Syd Uni)
• Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management (Flinders University)
• Completed Course 12 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program

Current projects

• Best management practices for dryland cropping in the Murrumbidgee catchment
• Variety specific management packages for wheat, canola and lupins in southern NSW
• Grain and Graze in the Murrumbidgee catchment
• Developing pasture and forage species for Eritrea (East Africa)
• Developing legislation for the seed and fertiliser sectors of Timor-Leste

Select Publications

Bowman AM, Smith W and Brockwell J (2004) Forecasting lucerne productivity under dryland farming conditions in central-western New South Wales. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 36: 1253-1260.

Bowman AM, Smith W, Peoples MB and Brockwell J (2004) Survey of productivity, composition and estimated inputs of fixed nitrogen by pastures in central western New South Wales. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, Volume 44, 1-11

Bowman AM, Peoples MB, Smith W and Brockwell J (2002) Factors affecting nitrogen fixation in dryland lucerne in central-western New South Wales. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 42, 439-451

Chan KY, Bowman AM and Oates A (2001) Oxidizible organic carbon fractions and soil quality changes in an Oxic Paleustalf under different pasture leys. Soil Science, 166 (1) : 61-67, Jan.

Chan KY, Bowman AM, Smith W and Ashley R (2001) Restoring soil fertility of degraded hardsetting red soils in semi-arid areas using different pastures. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 41, 504-514.

Peoples MB, Bowman AM, Gault RR, Herridge DF, McCallum MH, McCormick KM, Norton RM, Rochester IJ, Scammell GJ and Schwenke GD (2000) Factors regulating contributions of fixed nitrogen by pasture and crop legumes to different farming systems of eastern Australia. Plant and Soil, 00: 1-13.

Blumenthal MJ, Bowman AM, Cole A, Jones RM, Kelman WM, Launders TE and Nicol HI (1999) Establishment, growth and persistence of greater Lotus (Lotus uliginous) at six sites in eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 39, 819-827.

Bowman AM, Wilson GPM and Gogel BJ (1998) Evaluation of perennial peanuts (Arachis spp.) as forage for the NSW north coast. Tropical Grasslands, 32, 252-258.

Bowman AM, Hebb DM, Munnich DJ and Brockwell J (1998) Rhizobium as a factor in the re-establishment of legume based pastures on clay soils of the wheat belt of north-western New South Wales. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 38, 555-566.

Book Chapters

Steve Archer and Alison Bowman (2002) Understanding and Managing Rangeland Plant Communities. Chapter in Global Rangelands: Progress and Prospects. Edited by Tony Grice and Ken Hodgkinson, to be published by CABI for the International Rangeland Society, pg 63-78.

Conference proceedings

Brockwell J, Bowman AM and Evans CE (2005) Sinorhizobium for the Australian native legume, Trigonella suavissima Lindl. – distribution and symbiotic properties. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for Nitrogen Fixation, Katoomba. November 2005.

Evans CE, Bowman AM and Scott B (2003) Subsurface soils in the central-western, low rainfall wheatbelt of NSW. Proceedings of the 11th Australian Agronomy Conference, Melbourne.

Bowman AM, Smith W and Melville G (2002) Grazing management for native grasslands in central west NSW.  Proceedings of District Agronomist Conference, Orange, Febuary.

Bowman AM, Smith W and Melville G (2002) Grazing management to improve the composition of native grasslands. Submitted to the Australian Rangelands Conference, Kalgoolie, September.

Bowman AM, Smith W, Mullen C and Brockwell J (2002) Do lucerene varieties vary in the amount of nitrogen they fix? Proceedings of  the 13th Nitrogen Fixation conference, Glenelg, September.

McIntosh G, Bowman A, Farquharson B, Scott F and Jessop R (2001) Economic potential of alternative pasture legumes for Central western NSW. Proceedings of the 10th Australian Agronomy Conference, Hobart, 2001.

Peoples MB, Angus JF, Bolger TP, Bowman AM, Dear BS, Gault RR and McCallum MH (2000) The nitrogen dynamics of lucerne-based pastures in crop rotations of south-eastern Australia. Lucerne 2000 Symposium – Lucerne Landscapes: Sustainable Profitable Systems, Katanning, WA, pg 56-60.

Bowman AM, Peoples MB, Smith W and Brockwell J (1999) Plant density is the key to N fixation by lucerne in CW NSW. Proceedings of the 12th Australian Nitrogen Fixation Conference, Wagga Wagga,  pg. 22-24.

Professional associations and activities

• NSW Grassland Society
• Australian Rural Leadership Graduate

Fields of Research

• 070305 Crop and Pasture Improvement (Selection and Breeding)
• 070302 Agronomy

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Farming systems
• phase farming
• crop-pasture rotations
• lucerne

Contact details