In this section:
Print 
Forage Shrub Systems
The improvement and use of forage shrubs are rapidly developing areas of research and development within the SARDI Pastures Group.
The speed of this development has been driven by the recent, severe environmental stresses, experienced on cereal-livestock farms in southern Australia and the increasing value of livestock production. The coincidence of recurring seasonal forage deficits, and longer-term drought and profitable livestock production has accentuated the need for a more diverse and robust farm feed base. Forage shrubs can moderate these deficits.
Our goal is to use forage base the development of innovative and profitable grazing systems. Hence, our aims are not only to maximise the productive performance of individual shrub species but also to optimise their contributions as part of diverse forage plant communities, to the whole-farm forage supply. The research efforts are multi-disciplinary and include plant genetics and breeding, forage plant ecology, livestock behaviour and production, and farming systems.
There are four major streams in which the research seeks:
The speed of this development has been driven by the recent, severe environmental stresses, experienced on cereal-livestock farms in southern Australia and the increasing value of livestock production. The coincidence of recurring seasonal forage deficits, and longer-term drought and profitable livestock production has accentuated the need for a more diverse and robust farm feed base. Forage shrubs can moderate these deficits.
Our goal is to use forage base the development of innovative and profitable grazing systems. Hence, our aims are not only to maximise the productive performance of individual shrub species but also to optimise their contributions as part of diverse forage plant communities, to the whole-farm forage supply. The research efforts are multi-disciplinary and include plant genetics and breeding, forage plant ecology, livestock behaviour and production, and farming systems.
There are four major streams in which the research seeks:
- To collect, describe and catalogue native forage shrub and herbaceous species, in order to access their genetic variability for greater productivity, and better adaptedness,
- To identify, and select superior shrub species that provide more productive, and nutritious forages that are more preferred by grazing livestock, and to improve these traits further through breeding
- To identify and manipulate the plant and animal factors that affect the productivity and quality of forage and shrub combinations, and their preferred selection and consumption by grazing livestock in order to optimise productivity, efficiency of use, nutritional value and dietary quality of those mixtures.
- To build an understanding of the interactions of these forage systems with the whole farming system to aid their adoption.
- ENRICH ™ Building better grazing systems through perennial shrubs (Future Farming Industries Co-operative Research Centre)
- Developing sustainable shrub-based forage systems for profitable mixed farming (Caring for Our Country Australian Government)
- Oldman saltbush improvement project (Future Farming Industries Co-operative Research Centre)
- Biophysical constraints to production of fodder shrubs (Department of Water Land, Biodiversity and Conservation)
Video - Tasty Native Shrubs, February 2009
It’s the new invention every farmer craves . . . cheap feed that can be grown easily, is drought tolerant, can stand up against grazing and best of all a natural remedy against nasty parasites. And it’s at Monarto where SARDI scientists are developing this new ‘superfood’ as part of national project called ‘Enrich’. Watch the video and find out how this project is revolutionising our grazing industry.
