New stylo varieties for frosty locations

Abstract

Pasture legumes have been identified as the best long-term option to increase productivity and profitability of grass pastures for large areas of Australia. However, finding legume varieties that are suited to the frost prone sub-tropics has been challenging due to low and unreliable winter rainfall resulting in poor persistence of temperate legumes (e.g. subterranean clover); while frosty winters and less rainfall during the summer growing season than in more northerly districts have resulted in poor persistence of tropical legumes (e.g. shrubby stylo cv. Seca). Some legumes have persisted on clay soils (e.g. medic and desmanthus); however, there are currently no commercially available legume varieties that are widely persistent on light soils (loams and sands) in southern Queensland. This paper describes the evaluation and planned commercialisation of five new stylo varieties that aim to fill the gap in available legume varieties for this important climate zone.