A rich history…
By Queensland standards, Brian Pastures is an old property. It comprises of country originally selected by Humphreys and Hubert in 1845 and ran sheep until it was found that Black speargrass was detrimental to both wool production, welfare and meat quality.
The Australian Meat Board purchased Brian Pastures in 1952 for pasture research and the management was vested in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. The main objective of the facility was to explore various means of increasing beef production through improved nutrition and husbandry, principally through pasture improvement.
The facility was initially stocked with Herefords, with a cross breeding program started in the mid 1970’s to produce a Sahiwal cross. In 1987 Brahman bulls were introduced from Belmont Research Station near Rockhampton to increase Bos indicus content in the herd. Today the highly recorded research herd comprises predominately of Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis breeds.
By 1988 almost 300 research and development projects had been undertaken at Brian Pastures.
… of research contributing to the development of Queensland’s beef industry
Brian Pastures has been iconic in its contribution to pastures and beef research in Queensland. The first recorded project on Brian Pastures involved replacing native pastures with sown species and lucerne.
By 1959, research was in full swing including projects on:
- Establishment and management of legumes in native pastures
- Sown pasture and species performance
- Fodder crops (e.g. depth and time of sowing of Cowpea)
- Fertilisers and plant nutrition/ physiology
- Stylo seed harvesting
- Timber control (some of the first trials using the Tordon® axe)
- Cattle husbandry (early weaning, eye pigmentation and cancer, timing of calving)
Around 250 legumes and 300 grasses were evaluated between 1954 and 1970. Research at Brian Pastures pioneered the use of leucaena and incorporating stylos for pasture improvement. Many producers followed the Brian Pastures lead in sown pasture development in the 1950s and 60s.
The facility has some of the oldest known plantings of leucaena in Queensland. The initial plantings of the Cunningham variety were sown in 1975, right through to the Tarrambah variety being sown in 2000. In total there is over 122ha of leucaena being utilised on Brian Pastures.
These early leucaena establishments in the Burnett region used the concept of small, fenced areas with 3m row spacing planted on the higher quality soils to act as a protein bank for cattle when native pastures are deficient in protein. Lessons learnt have contributed to current Leucaena establishment recommendations of planting at wider row spacing and planting across the paddock.
More information on leucaena establishment and management can be found HERE.
Weather data was recorded daily by staff from 1954 up until 2012 and submitted to the Bureau of Meteorology.
