Reducing the cost of pasture establishment

Summary

The following are the key findings and recommendations from this Project: 
The opportunities for reducing the costs of pasture establishment are limited and often outside of the control of producers (for example input costs). The low rate of pasture sowing in southern Australia - which is the rationale for this Project - may well be related to the prolonged period of drought throughout southern Australia and its economic impact and not necessarily the perceived high cost and concerns by producers over persistence. 
By contrast anecdotal evidence suggests that the current improved seasonal conditions and high prices for livestock and wool is leading to renewed interest in pasture sowing. There is a fundamental question over the actual methodology used for determining the cost of pasture establishment and this may be contributing to the concerns expressed by landholders over the cost of pasture establishment. 
While the clear intention of this Project is to explore the various ways and means of reducing the costs of pasture establishment (the primary focus for the project must be on the potential to reduce establishment costs - TOR) most of the feedback and comments from industry specialists and producers relate to improvements in pasture establishment success and/or recommendations about pasture establishment in general, not necessarily to reducing these costs. This is based on the recurring belief that rhe biggest cost of pasture sowing is failure. The techniques and methodology for sowing and establishing pastures are generally well understood and there is an overwhelming belief that most of the information about the successful establishment of pastures is already known. Farmers are well equipped with information on weed control, fertiliser requirement, seedbed preparation techniques and post sowing management for established new pastures. The issue is therefore fundamentally about the extension and adoption on-farm of known best practice in the area of pasture establishment. There are however some key areas which are not well defined or have no clear answers. 
​As a consequence of this Project three prospective areas have therefore been identified as necessitating further RD& E. These are: Sowing Rates and Seed Mixes of Pastures Time of Sowing / Spring Sowing of Pastures Determining the Cost of Pasture Establishment