Interest in multispecies pastures is booming and farmers will have the opportunity to learn about their role in south-west Victorian livestock systems at a field day in Nirranda on November 27.
The ‘Multispecies pastures, water efficiency and revegetation’ field day at the Vallance family farm is being hosted by Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network as part of the Building Climate Resilience and Increasing Productivity and Biodiversity on South West Farms project.
The farm was home to a two-year annual multispecies pasture trial in 2020-22.
The trial area was sown to a perennial multispecies mix in 2023 and the Vallance family continues to manage it as a diverse pasture.
Independent multispecies pasture consultant at Healthy Farming Systems, Jade Killoran, said the two-year trial at the Nirranda farm was a success.
The summer multispecies was sown after annual rye-grass was harvested for silage.
“The paddocks on that part of the farm are usually left unsown over summer, but the mix grew very well and provided high quality feed and good groundcover,” Ms Killoran said.
“The friability and colour of the soil also improved where the multispecies was grown, indicating soil organic matter was increasing.
Repeated sowings of the diverse pasture blends over the two years also increased fodder production in this paddock.
The multispecies pastures ticked the boxes from an economic and environmental point of view.”
Ms Killoran expects strong interest in the field day as more farmers look at the benefits of multispecies pastures.
“The adoption rates are still in the innovative farmer part of the curve, but it is becoming more common to see diverse pastures being sown across Victoria,” she said.
“There is strong interest amongst farmers and it’s growing every year.
“Now that innovative farmers have been using these types of regenerative practices for a few years, it is a good opportunity to see first-hand how the adoption of multispecies pastures has fitted into farming systems on these properties.”
Ms Killoran said there were interlinked economic and environmental benefits from using multispecies pastures, and increasing numbers of farmers are recognising these benefits.
“With multispecies pastures, farmers can grow more feed at periods of the year when there is a feed gap, usually over summer and early autumn, and that helps with reducing reliance on hay and silage.”
She said the high quality of the feed can lead to stable or higher livestock production, with fewer inputs. Multispecies pastures also tend to improve ground cover, moisture infiltration, soil biological activity, nutrient cycling and biodiversity.
“As well as the direct return from grazing the multispecies pasture, there are a number of environmental gains that also link back to long-term profitability and sustainability.”
The field day will also look at water savings achieved by Bruce, Andrea and Jordy Vallance through innovative water irrigation and management practices, including use of variable rate irrigation, as well as the revegetation projects and their benefits to the farm.
It will be held from 10am to 2pm at 3335 Great Ocean Rd, Nirranda.
To register for the field day, email Geoff Rollinson at facilitator@wcln.org.au or Danielle Nipe at facilitator2@wcln.org.au