Sheep production on puccinellia based pastures in South Australia

Abstract

Puccinellia (Puccinellia ciliata) is a winter active perennial grass that is well suited to saline and waterlogged land, growing well in areas typically inundated with sea barley grass (Hordium marinum) and where the soil has become bare (Herrmann and Booth, 1997). In the Upper South-East of South Australia puccinellia is usually grazed in late spring as a means of avoiding barley grass seed problems in livestock or in autumn to fill the usual feed gap and thereby reduce the reliance on supplementary feeding. Anecdotal evidence suggests that puccinellia is excellent stock feed (Herrmann and Booth, 1997), however documented production data are largely unavailable. This paper reports on a preliminary study of animal production for sheep grazing puccinellia on moderately saline soil in the Mt Charles area of South Australia. The study is part of a national initiative to develop innovative animal production solutions for saline/waterlogged land that are economically and ecologically sustainable.