The performance of lucerne–wheat rotations on Western Australian duplex soils
R. A. Latta A C and A. Lyons BA Department of Primary Industries, Walpeup, Vic. 3507, Australia; formerly Department of Agriculture, Western Australia.
B Department of Agriculture Western Australia, Esperance, WA 6450, Australia.
C Corresponding author; CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Email: Roy.Latta@dpi.vic.gov.au
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 57(3) 335-346 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR04016
Submitted: 21 January 2004 Accepted: 15 March 2005 Published: 31 March 2006
Abstract
In field experiments on duplex soils in the south-eastern and central Western Australian wheatbelt, lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) was compared with subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) in pasture–crop rotations. Comparative pasture plant densities and biomass, soil water content, available soil nitrogen, wheat grain yield, and protein content were measured during 2 and 3 years of pasture followed by 2 and 1 year of wheat, respectively. Lucerne densities declined by 60–90% over the 3-year pasture phase but produced up to 3 times more total annual biomass than weed-dominant annual pastures and similar total annual biomass when annual pastures were legume dominant. Lower soil water contents were measured under lucerne than under annual pastures from 6 months after establishment, with deficits up to 60 mm in the 0–1.6 m soil profile. However, significant rain events and volunteer perennial weeds periodically negated comparative deficits. Wheat yields were lower following lucerne (1.3 t/ha) than following an annual pasture (1.8 t/ha) in a low-rainfall season, higher (3.7 v. 2.9 t/ha) in a high-rainfall season, and much higher when the previous annual pastures were grass dominant (3.4 v. 1.5 t/ha). Grain protein contents were 1–2% higher in response to the lucerne pasture phase. Overcropping wheat into a lucerne pasture of 19 plants/m2 reduced wheat grain yields, but a lucerne density of 4 plants/m2 reduced yields only where rainfall was low. The study has shown that lucerne–wheat rotations provide a productive farming system option on duplex, sodic soils in both the south-eastern and central cropping regions of Western Australia. This was most evident in seasons of above-average summer and growing-season rainfall and when compared with grass-dominant annual pastures.
Additional keywords: salinity, soil water, phase pastures, pasture management.
Acknowledgments
We thank Chris Matthews, Ian Rose, and Darryl McClements for technical support; the Ashby, Fraser, and Micklejohn farming families at Cascade, Quairading, and Wittenoom Hills, respectively; and the Grains Research and Development Corporation for funding support.
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