Operational aspects of ley farming systems in the semi-arid tropics of northern Australia: a review

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
SJ Yeates ◽  
DG Abrecht ◽  
TP Price ◽  
WS Mollah ◽  
P Hausler
Keyword(s):  
Seed Quality ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Transition Management ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Semi Arid ◽  
Operational Aspects ◽  
Ley Farming Systems

The ley farming systems proposed for the Australian semi-arid tropics involve rotating an annual pasture (usually legume) with crops sown using no-tillage. These systems were developed to overcome many of the climatic constraints that beset previous attempts at cropping in the region. However, difficulties in the timing of farm operations also contributed to past failures. No analysis of the operational aspects of ley farming had been made; this was the objective of this paper. During the transition between wet and dry seasons rainfall is extremely variable. These periods were shown to be the most critical time for operations in ley farming systems. During the dry-wet transition, management of ley pastures is very difficult because pastures must provide grazing for livestock as well as sufficient soil cover for timely sowing of a following crop. Legume pastures have reduced grazing value at this time due to spoilage by early rain. Similarly, during the wet-dry transition annual pastures must be allowed to set seed at a time when crops are yet to be harvested and stubbles are not available for grazing. It was suggested that including separate paddocks of perennial pasture could reduce the demand on annual pastures during the seasonal transitions. A limited number of days to sow a crop combined with severe yield penalties for late sowing restrict the area that can be sown in any season. Sowing opportunities were determined for 3 locations in the Northern Territory. No-tillage was shown to increase the potential number of sowing days. However, the time available to apply glyphosate before sowing using no-tillage was confined to the morning due to risk of afternoon rainshowers reducing efficacy. The number of seasons where a particular crop or cultivar could not be sown was independent of the method of tillage. The wet-dry transition was shown to be important for harvest operations. Our analysis of 3 sites in the Northern Territory suggests that for mungbean and sorghum, later maturity combined with prompt harvest will reduce the risk of poor seed quality due to weathering and could permit earlier sowing. However, for sorghum, an economic assessment of these practices required research that can quantify the interaction between sowing date, time-to-maturity and grain yield.

Commercial experience in developing ley farming systems for the Katherine-Darwin region, Northern Territory

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
TP Price ◽  
F O'Gara ◽  
ESC Smith ◽  
R Pitkethley ◽  
P Hausler
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Plant Disease Control ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Control And Management ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Ley Farming Systems

This paper examines the past, present and likely future commercial development and adoption of ley farming systems in the Katherine-Darwin region(about 12-14�S, 131-132�E, elevation 30-1 10 m) of the Northern Territory. Producers' current practices, adaptations and the extent to which they have adopted a systems approach are reported. Advantages of ley farming and the constraints to its more rapid adoption are described. Also discussed are aspects of crop, cattle and hay production; weed, insect and plant disease control, and management; on-farm demonstrations and the economics of crop production, from the producer's perspective, in the context of ley farming.

Comparison of no-tillage and conventional tillage in the development of sustainable farming systems in the semi-arid tropics

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 995 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Thiagalingam ◽  
NP Dalgliesh ◽  
NS Gould ◽  
RL McCown ◽  
AL Cogle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Conventional Tillage ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Soil Movement ◽  
Dryland Crops ◽  
Semi Arid

The results of 5 short-term (4-8 years) experiments and farm demonstrations in which no-tillage technology was compared with conventional or reduced tillage in the semi-arid tropics of the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland, during the mid 1980s to mid 1990s, are reviewed. In the Douglas-Daly and Katherine districts of the Northern Territory, dryland crops of maize, sorghum, soybean and mungbean sown using no-tillage with adequate vegetative mulch on the soil surface have produced yields comparable with, or higher than (especially in drier years), those obtained under conventional tillage. The importance of a surface mulch in ameliorating soil temperature, moisture and fertility, and in reducing soil movement and loss in crop production in the semi-arid tropics was confirmed. Management of mulch (pasture, crop residues and weeds) will be crucial in the application of no-tillage technology to the development of mixed dryland crop and livestock enterprises in the semi-arid tropics.

Annual clovers (Trifolium spp.) have different reproductive strategies to achieve persistence in Mediterranean-type climates

2005 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley C. Norman ◽  
Philip S. Cocks ◽  
Nick W. Galwey
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Reproductive Traits ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
High Fecundity ◽  
Risk Of Failure ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Collection Sites ◽  
Ley Farming Systems

The aim of this work was to determine whether different species of annual clover (Trifolium spp.), obtained from the same environment, have different reproductive strategies (combinations of reproductive traits) to achieve ecological success. A better understanding of the traits that improve persistence should allow agronomists to narrow the selection criteria for new clover cultivars for ley-farming systems in southern Australia. Seeds of 18 annual clover species were obtained from 3 Australian and 6 Mediterranean sites and were subsequently grown in a common garden in Western Australia. Reproductive traits, including time of flowering, weight per seed, fecundity, pollen to ovule ratio, and pattern of seed softening, were observed. Accessions of different clover species from the same site of collection had different reproductive strategies. Across a range of collection sites, accessions of the same species demonstrated the same broad reproductive strategy; however, some traits, e.g. the timing of flowering, varied within species across collection sites. Principal component analysis suggested that there are 3 broad reproductive strategies demonstrated by these clover species. At one extreme were the relatively large-seeded clovers (T. subterraneum, T. clypeatum, and T. stellatum). The associated cost of these large seeds is reduced fecundity. The large-seeded clovers do not have high long-term hardseededness (the predominant form of seed dormancy in clovers). The relatively small-seeded clovers were all characterised by high fecundity. Many of the small-seeded clovers have high levels of long-term hardseededness, which allow the risk of failure to be spread across seasons (T. spumosum, T. hirtum, T. lappaceum, T. angustifolium, and T. tomentosum). Some of the small-seeded clovers (T. glomeratum, T. nigrescens, T. campestre, T. cernuum, and T. suffocatum) are generalists, producing as many seeds as possible in each season, with very little hardseededness. There are several possible explanations for the apparent success of such different reproductive strategies among clover accessions of different species at the same site. A plant may achieve the same goal by trading one reproductive trait for another. For example, it may either produce many small seeds to spread the risk of failure or produce fewer large seeds with an inherent competitive advantage. Alternatively, temporal and spatial variation may favour clovers with a number of different reproductive strategies. It is likely that a mixture of species with different reproductive strategies will maximise production and persistence of legume-based pastures in ley-farming systems.

Being realistic about no-tillage, legume ley farming for the Australian semi-arid tropics

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
RL McCown
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
Tropical Region ◽  
Field Crop ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Pasture Legumes ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Semi Arid

There is a long tradition of expectation that, in time, land use in the better-endowed areas of Australia's semi-arid tropics would intensify from beef production on grassy woodlands to broadacre production of dryland crops. However, successive development attempts have yet to result in a substantial field crop industry. This paper reflects on a recent 20-year research and development episode in which ley farming, so successful in the wheat-sheep zone of southern Australia, was adapted and trialed in the tropical north. The system tested in the tropics was one which featured (i) coarse grain crops in rotation with legume leys and (ii) cattle grazing native pasture in the crop growing season and ley and crop residues in the dry season. It can be concluded that this system is technically successful. But compared with the ley system in southern Australia, the benefits of pasture legumes are less efficiently captured, both in the animal and the crop production enterprises. In addition, in this climate and on these soils, pastures with the high legume composition needed to substantially substitute for nitrogen fertiliser in the crop phase pose a serious threat of soil acidification. In contrast to legume leys, the advantage of no-tillage, mulch farming practices over conventional cultivation is much greater in this semi-arid tropical region than in temperate or Mediterranean areas: by slowing evaporation, mulch is often crucial in reducing high temperature injury or impedance to emerging seedlings as well as reducing the deleterious effects of intensive summer rainfall. But even with this improvement the climatic risks in dryland grain cropping remain a strong deterrent to crop industry development. Today, the findings from past experimentation, accrued farming experience, and new information products combine to provide what seem to be more realistic expectations for agriculture in this region. Even with the 'best' technology, this region suffers comparative disadvantage with respect to dryland field crop production and marketing. However, the region enjoys comparative advantages in the production of several other types of commodities, and a more realistic approach to 'Research and Development' includes a shift of resources toward activities with production and marketing advantages.

Effect of pasture management on the contributions of fixed N to the N economy of ley-farming systems

1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Peoples ◽  
R. R. Gault ◽  
G. J. Scammell ◽  
B. S. Dear ◽  
J. Virgona ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
N2 Fixation ◽  
Subterranean Clover ◽  
Trifolium Subterraneum ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Pasture Management ◽  
Mineral N ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Ley Farming Systems

The effects of different management regimes on N2 fixation by subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum) in annual pastures and lucerne (Medicago sativa) in perennial-based pastures were examined in 5 experiments and 55 commercial paddocks, in which the pastures were grown in phased rotation with crops. The objectives were to quantify the inputs of fixed N2 and to determine ways of increasing nitrogen (N) inputs into ley-farming systems of southern New South Wales and north-eastern Victoria. Estimates of annual amounts of N2 fixed, based on above-ground herbage production in grazed pastures, ranged from 5 to 238 kg N/ha for subterranean clover and from 47 to 167 kg N/ha for lucerne. Legume reliance upon N2 fixation for growth (Pfix) was high (>65%) in most annual and perennial pastures examined. The levels of Pfix were generally unaffected by management treatments. As a consequence the amounts of N2 fixed were predominantly regulated by the legume content and herbage yield of pastures rather than by any marked differences in the ability of the legume to fix N. When all experimental results were combined with on-farm measurements of N2 fixation, the data indicated that lucerne and subterranean clover fixed 22-25 kg N for every tonne of legume dry matter produced. Management inputs to annual pastures which improved the productivity of subterranean clover and the amounts of N2 fixed included applications of superphosphate and the removal of grass species with herbicide, although the response to these treatments was not consistent across all sites in all years. Potential inputs from N2 fixation were high in annual pastures, and improved management during a good clover season enhanced the levels of mineral N detected in the soil profile (0-200 cm) the following autumn by 100-200 kg N/ha. However, year-to-year variability in annual pasture productivity and clover content resulted in large fluctuations in amounts of N2 fixed. Perennial pastures containing lucerne provided consistently greater annual herbage production, had more stable legume contents, and fixed on average 90-150% more N2 than neighbouring subterranean clover-based pastures. Even during the 1994 drought when annual pastures failed, lucerne still managed to fix >70 kg N/ha. It is proposed that lucerne-based pastures could represent a more reliable means of improving soil fertility for subsequent crops than annual pastures.

Conservation cropping systems for the semi-arid tropics of North Queensland, Australia

1991 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 515 ◽  
Author(s):  
AL Cogle ◽  
RJ Bateman ◽  
DH Heiner
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Reduced Tillage ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Semi Arid

A farming systems project was commenced in the semi-arid tropics of north-eastern Australia to assess the cropping potential and reliability of a newly developing region. Emphasis was placed on evaluation of conservation cropping systems, since it was expected that these would be the most successful and protective uses of the land. This paper discusses the agronomy of peanuts, maize and sorghum grown under different conservative cropping practices (reduced tillage, no tillage, ley) on the soil (red earth) most likely to be developed for large-scale cropping in the region. Crop yields with all practices were limited by establishment difficulties including high soil temperatures, poor weed control and climatic variability. Reduced tillage was more successful than no tillage due to higher yields in dry years; however, in wet years no tillage produced similar yields. The ley cropping system may have some advantages in this environment for integrated production and resource protection.

Preliminary assessment of bladder clover (Trifolium spumosum L.) as an annual legume for ley farming systems in southern Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Loi ◽  
Brad J. Nutt ◽  
John G. Howieson ◽  
Ron. J. Yates ◽  
Hayley C. Norman
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Agronomic Traits ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Mixed Crop ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Feeding Value ◽  
Annual Medicago ◽  
Ley Farming Systems

Trifolium spumosum L. (bladder clover) is an aerial seeding annual legume that is adapted to fine-textured soils throughout the Mediterranean Basin. This article is the first of two papers that describe the process of domestication of T. spumosum as a new species to commercial agriculture. This paper describes a broad range of investigations into the ecology, agronomy and rhizobiology of this new species. Through a series of five experiments, we have tested the general hypothesis that T. spumosum accessions demonstrate a range of sought-after agronomic traits and offer an alternative to annual Medicago spp. for ley farming systems in the medium to low rainfall areas of the mixed crop/livestock zone of southern Australia. T. spumosum presents seeds at the top of the canopy in heads that do not readily shatter, so seed can be harvested using conventional cereal harvesters instead of the specialist suction equipment required for harvest of seed from annual T. subterraneum and Medicago spp. T. spumosum was found to be relatively fecund and had high levels of biomass production in comparison to the other annual legumes that were tested. The species also demonstrated high levels of within-season hardseededness (remaining hard in summer and softening in autumn) so seedbanks would be protected from summer rainfall events. In addition, T. spumosum showed high levels of between-season dormancy, which allows the species to carry a seedbank through a cropping phase or series of poor seasons. A herbicide experiment showed that clover species varied in tolerances, with T. spumosum the least sensitive of all of the legumes tested to Flumetsulam. A cross-inoculation experiment to measure symbiotic effectiveness revealed that WSM1325 (current clover strain) surpasses WSM409 (previous strain) in its relationship with the annual clovers of contemporary interest, while being highly effective at nitrogen fixation with T. spumosum. The results of this study and an associated investigation into feeding value indicate that T. spumosum offers a productive alternative to annual Medicago spp. on fine-textured soils. Of the T. spumosum accessions tested, the most promising has been released under the cultivar name of AGWEST Bartolo.

Conservation tillage and ley farming in the semi-arid tropics of northern Australia - some economic aspects

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1049
Author(s):  
GWM Kirby ◽  
VJ Hristova ◽  
S Murti
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Commodity Price ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Ley Farming ◽  
Semi Arid

This paper examines some aspects of the economics of conservation tillage and ley farming in the semi-arid tropics of northern Australia. The distribution, 1 value and major trends in the enterprises comprising the agricultural sector of the semi-arid tropics are discussed in an industry context. The likely economic benefits for the farmer from the adoption of conservation tillage and ley farming come from mulch retention and increased yields. These benefits vary with the frequency of grain cropping, the legume species used and the commodity price relativities. The benefits are likely to be larger in drier growing seasons. Data on other factors, such as soil type and seasons, were inadequate for economic analysis. Some ley farming systems are more profitable than single enterprises in the short term. In the long term, the best choice for sustainable farming systems in the semi-arid tropics appears to be a legume pasture system or a legume pasture-crop system. Results to date from ley farming studies show that experimental designs need to be modified to incorporate higher cropping frequencies and more comprehensive joint product measures in order to allow a more critical economic assessment. Additional benefits to society from the adoption of conservation tillage and ley farming are likely to come from minimising adverse on-farm and off-farm effects of agricultural activities. There are strong arguments for continuing support for research and development in ley farming technology and a joint sharing of the costs between farmers and the community generally.

The Promise of Flood-Based Farming Systems in Arid and Semi-arid Areas

2017 ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Matthijs Kool ◽  
Frank van Steenbergen ◽  
Abraham Mehari Haile ◽  
Yasir Mohamed Abbas ◽  
Eyasu Hagos
Keyword(s):  
Farming Systems ◽  
Arid Areas ◽  
Semi Arid
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