Effects of Grazing Management on Natural Pastures in a Marginal Area of Southeastern Australia

Abstract

The main reason for examining grazing management as a means of controlling barley grass (Hordeum leporinum) was that in marginal areas between reliable cropping and true semiarid rangeland areas, it is uneconomic to consider a chemical or mechanical eradication program, particularly as there is no desirable improved grass species which can be sown as a replacement. The study shows that in this environment the removal of barley grass by heavy grazing early in the autumn may result in crowfoot (Erodium spp.) dominant pastures, which although productive in winter-spring, does not carry over as dry feed and also produces seed which cause damage to stock. Alternatively, hard grazing in late winter increased the proportion of barley grass in the pasture and the number of seedheads per unit area. However, this pasture may be suitable for sheep grazing, since the seedheads were formed close enough to the ground to make the areas effectively seed free areas for livestock.