On the 28th April, Anna and Colin Butcher hosted a field day showcasing their pastures program which was implemented 5 years ago with the help of a funding grant from Wheatbelt NRM.

The 50 attendee’s braved cold, wet weather to see Anna and Colin’s success and hear the experts – Dr Angelo Loi and Dr Ron Yates (DAFWA); Brad Nutt and Dr John Howeison (Murdoch University) discuss the practicalities of growing these pastures and the potential benefits to soils, crops and livestock.

Questions raised by guests mainly evolved around the most appropriate chemicals for weed and pest control and the impacts of residual herbicides on the pasture’s establishment and performance.

The use of pastures in mixed cropping-livestock farming is gaining momentum as a more integrated system compared to standard practices.

Background:

Funding from Wheatbelt NRM was the momentum the Butchers needed to trial an idea Anna had been sitting on for a while.

They used the grant to test the establishment and use of hard seeded, summer sown, Serradella and Biserulla pastures under the guidance of experts at DAFWA and Murdoch.

The pastures were so successful that they then extended the trial across their whole farm, restructuring their cropping and livestock programs based around the nitrogen fixing pastures, which have reduced their need for N application on crops and summer hand feeding of sheep.