Opportunistic Mediterranean agriculture – Using ephemeral pasture legumes to utilize summer rainfall

Dion L. Nicol, John Finlayson, Timothy D. Colmer and Megan H. Ryan

Agricultural Systems, 2013, vol. 120, issue C, 76-84

Abstract: The wet winters and summer droughts of dry Mediterranean-type climates create a highly seasonal supply of feed for livestock. Much of the forage value of winter-active annual pastures and crop residues is realized as dry feed during summer–autumn. Sporadic summer–autumn rainfall rapidly degrades the quality of dry plant residues. In low rainfall areas of the southern Australian wheatbelt, there are no well-adapted crops or pastures to convert summer rainfall into high-quality green feed and supplementary feeding is required to maintain livestock condition. We therefore investigated two undomesticated ephemeral legumes (Cullen cinereum and Cullen graveolens). In a field experiment, the ephemerals were dormant in winter–spring and responded strongly to summer rainfall, with 0.45–0.82tha–1 of shoot dry weight produced over summer. Extrapolation of regional historic rainfall records showed similar or greater summer–autumn rainfall in 40% of years and also suggested that conditions will probably be too dry for perennial pastures such as Medicago sativa (lucerne) to persist in up to 60% of years. An analysis using MIDAS, a bio-economic model, suggested that ephemerals could increase total farm profit and stocking rates (10.3% and 7.7%, respectively), and decrease supplementary feeding of grain by >50% by providing high quality feed in years that summer–autumn rainfall occurs. We suggest there is considerable potential for ephemeral legumes to contribute to the sustainability of mixed agriculture in dry Mediterranean-type climates by utilizing sporadic summer rainfall whilst complementing existing annual pasture and cropping systems.

Keywords: Low-rainfall environments; Climatic variability; Cullen species; Novel plants; Crop and pasture residues; Bio-economic modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:120:y:2013:i:c:p:76-84

DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2013.06.001

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