Pasture cropping: a new approach to integrate crop and livestock farming systems

Abstract

Pasture cropping is a farmer-initiated concept of sowing a winter active cereal into a summer-active native perennial pasture. Proponents claim that by using pasture cropping they are able to maintain or improve the perennial pasture. Research was carried out on a Bothriochloa macra dominant pasture at Wellington, in the central western slopes of New South Wales, to compare pasture cropping to conventional no-till cropping and pasture only systems under different fertiliser rates and rotations. Key variables for the comparison included forage and crop production, pasture perenniality and ground cover, soil fertility and water use, and profitability. Our results show that pasture cropping can successfully retain perennial grasses and ground cover while still producing profitable cropping and grazing compared with continuous pasture. Crop yields from pasture cropping were less than 65% of those for conventional no-till cropping, which led to conventional no-till cropping having the greatest, but also most volatile, gross margin throughout the experiment. However, the lower input costs associated with pasture cropping reduced the effects of crop failure on farm profit. While soil moisture differences did not occur between treatments during the experiment, soil fertility, especially N, played a major role in determining crop yield. The role of pasture cropping in farming systems is discussed.