Legume establishment in southern and central Queensland (focussed on the Brigalow Belt region)

Legumes have been shown to significantly increase production and returns compared to grass only pastures, however successful adoption of legumes remains low in the Brigalow Belt. There are legume species and varieties that are suited to the Brigalow belt that are persistent and productive in the long-term. However, poor establishment is the most common reason for these legumes failing in commercial pastures.

The Brigalow Belt has a unique and challenging climate for establishing legumes into existing grass pastures because of rainfall patterns and evaporation rates. This webinar describes the challenges of establishing legumes, research results on improving the reliability of establishing legumes and management recommendations for reliable legume establishment in the Brigalow Belt and elsewhere.

The DAF sown pastures team conducted six research trials in the Brigalow Belt to test a wide range of establishment techniques. These trials demonstrate that improved practices can dramatically improve the reliability of establishing legumes. Listen to the webinar recording to learn about the impact of the following practices on legume establishment:

• fallowing for moisture storage, controlling competition (from grass and weeds) and reducing soil seed banks
• one-pass cultivation or herbicide treatments while sowing
• zero-tillage compared to cultivated seed-bed preparation
• broadcasting seed compared to drilling seed into the soil
• post-emergent herbicides.

In this webinar recording, join Gavin Peck, DPI (Queensland) Principal Pasture Agronomist, as he presents the trial results and discusses best management practices for successful legume establishment in southern and central Queensland.

You can watch the full recording or use the playlist below to jump to the start of a particular section within the presentation. (38:16; published 14 November 2024 by FutureBeefAu).

Download a copy of the presentation – Legume establishment in southern and central Queensland (PDF; 3.52 MB)

Additional resources:

• Queensland Pasture Resilience Program (FutureBeef)
• Sign up to the Queensland Pastures newsletter (FutureBeef)
• Stylos in Queensland (FutureBeef)
• Victoria River District Legume Establishment Demonstration (FutureBeef)
• Legumes Hub (MLA)

Tip: Search for ‘Legumes’ on the FutureBeef website to access a suite of pasture legume related information.

Full recording

Playlist

1. Legume establishment in southern and central Queensland (focussed on the Brigalow Belt)
2. Introduction – Legume establishment Part 1
3. Overview
4. Legumes – “huge potential”
5. Successful legume establishment?
6. Research results in the Brigalow Belt
7. Fallowing and seed bed preparation trials
8. Establishment methods
9. Stored moisture is critical!
10. Moisture matters…
11. Brigalow belt region – a unique climate
12. Challenging climate for sowing legumes
13. Sowing time – planting window with stored moisture (summer growing)
14. Broadcast or drill (??) – trial results
15. Soil surface condition
16. Establishing method – the trade-offs
17. Most common legume establishment methods
18. Poor recommendations
19. Legume BMP planning timeline
20. What method: Good condition sown grasses (?)
21. What method: Poorer condition sown grasses (?)
22. What method: Non-arable land (?)
23. What method: High risk, low production potential (?)
24. Legume recommendations and summary
25. Legume workshop delivery
26. More information
27. Conclusions