In this section:
Vetch Breeding
Vetch is becoming a more important pulse crop in SA and in the southern states because of its ability to fix nitrogen and grow on alkaline soils where medics have failed to persist. It also has potential to provide nutritious hay and grain for livestock. Vetch variety development for Australia, as part of a national vetch breeding program, focuses on the following end-uses:
- grain production for livestock,
- hay and grazing,
- green manure
The vetch breeding unit is committed to:
- releasing vetch varieties with improved disease resistance,
- improving grain and hay production,
- breeding varieties suitable for a wider range of Australian environments,
- developing varieties with lower levels of cyano-glycoside in the grain for livestock
Basic research and agronomic work is also an important part of establishing a new crop. Feeding trials of fat lambs and cattle are currently underway and trials with pigs have been completed to develop guidelines for feeding vetch to these animals. Seeding rate and herbicide trials underpin the agronomic work being done on this crop and the analysis of cyano-glycoside levels in the grain by the University of Adelaide and selection of lines with multiple disease resistances is ongoing.
Vetch Hay: Hay production is an important end use for vetch. Vetch hay variety development focuses on the following:
- adaptation to a wider range of Australian environments
- improving disease resistance and agronomic traits
- improving pasture, hay and green manure yield
- compatibility with sown cereals
- low alkaloid content in foliage
- adaptability to grazing
Hay is richer in protein than all cereals, medics and even lucerne. World demand for hay feed has been growing rapidly and is predicted to double in the next 10-15 years. Development of vetch suitable for pasture and hay/silage will ensure growers are able to capitalise on this new market and develop a high profit return for vetch as a fodder crop.
Both the oat and vetch breeding programs rely on their associations with other SARDI and interstate researchers and on funding from GRDC, RIRDC, South Australian Grain Industry Trust (SAGIT), The Uncle Tobys Company, and the State Government.
Oat and vetch evaluation is undertaken in conjunction with the SARDI Field Crop Evaluation & Agronomy Unit, the nematology, plant pathology, and cell and tissue culture groups of the Field Crops Pathology Unit, the CRC for Molecular Plant Breeding, Adelaide University, Primary Industries Victoria and Departments of Agriculture in WA and NSW, the Sydney University Plant Breeding Institutes at Cobbitty and Narrabri, research centres at Kingsford, Minnipa, Temora, Kybybolite, Walpeup, Kerang, Esperance, and Condobolin, the Division of Plant Industry, CSIRO, Canberra, and farmer co-operators across South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales.
