Tactical Pasture Management: Enhancing Profits from Poplar Box Country

Abstract

The project assembled basic information to allow effective management and manipulation of native pastures in the southern Maranoa region of Queensland. This involved a range of plant studies, including a grazing trial, to quantify the costs of poor pasture composition. While the results focus on perennial grasses, we recognise the important dietary role played by broad-leaved herbs.

The plant manipulation studies focussed on ways to change the proportions of plants in a grazed pasture, eg. by recruitment or accelerated morbidity of existing plants. As most perennial grasses have a wide range of potential flowering times outside of mid-winter, rainfall exerts the major influence on flowering and seedset; exceptions are black speargrass, rough speargrass and golden beardgrass that flower only for a restricted period each year. This simplifies potential control options through reducing seedset.

Data from field growth studies of four pasture grasses have been used to refine the State's pasture production model GRASP. We also provide detailed data on the forage value of many native species at different growth stages.

Wiregrass dominance in pastures on a sandy red earth reduced wool value by only 5-10% at Roma in 1994/95 when winters were very dry and grass seed problems were minimal.