French (pink) serradella persisting well on a duplex soil at an experimental site near Yass, NSW, November 2021.

COLLABORATIVE producers, retailers and consultants are being sought to help Meat and Livestock Australia develop serradellas as a viable legume option for permanent pasture systems in the higher rainfall environments of south-eastern Australia.

Serradellas are annual legumes that have the potential to be productive on sandy and duplex soil types with added benefits of low bloat risk, low oestrogenic activity and a lower requirement for phosphorus fertiliser than subterranean clover.

Researchers from CSIRO, NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture are establishing a network of experiments across diverse environments from Glen Innes (Northern Tablelands of NSW) to the midlands region of Tasmania.

The experiments are assessing the flowering time and seed characteristics of a range of existing cultivars of yellow serradella and French serradella also known as ‘pink’ serradella (see image below), along with some breeding lines to identify material best suited to these environments.

Additional work is also underway to:

• demonstrate the persistence, dry matter production and feed value of these cultivars
• establish suitable agronomic guidelines for establishing serradellas (e.g. sowing rates, companion species) in these systems.

Researchers have identified a small number of cultivars with useful persistence traits in the target environments, based on preliminary experiments. The research team is working with producers (including Glen Innes Natural Resources Advisory Committee, Tablelands Farming Systems, Monaro Farming Systems and in the midlands region of Tasmania) to establish MLA Producer Demonstration Sites aimed at demonstrating the production and persistence of serradellas under paddock conditions.

As part of the research, producers, retailers or advisors operating in the permanent pasture zones of south-eastern Australia are being sought to share their experiences in the area, and especially with serradellas.

Separate surveys are being conducted for producers, agricultural retailers and advisors/consultants.

If people complete the survey by Wednesday 21 December 2022, they will have the opportunity to enter a draw to win a $200 gift card from a major retailer (a gift card can be won for each survey category).

Producers can click here to complete the survey.

Agricultural retailers can click here to complete the survey.

Advisors or consultants can click here to complete the survey.

Serradella demonstrating good winter vigour at a flowering time experiment in Canberra, August 2022

Source – MLA.