A ‘Dream’ pasture and its comparison with two existing annual pasture legumes for Western Australia: a farmers’ eye view

K P Salam*,**, R Murray-Prior*, D Bowran** and M U Salam***

* School of Agriculture and Environment, Curtin University,
Muresk PMB 1, Northam 6401, Western Australia
** Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia,
Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, Western Australia 6983
kawsar.salam@agric.wa.gov.au
*** Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia,
PO Box 483, Northam 6401, Western Australia

Abstract

A number of annual pasture legumes (APLs) have been released in Western Australia since 1990 with the aim of a successful fit into the existing farming systems.  However, the success of adoption of these pastures has not been encouraging.  In this study, based on farmers perceptions derived from a survey, an APL-characteristics framework was developed for Western Australia.  The framework was simplified into six components.  They are, in order of importance calculated from the percent of farmers mentioning them: superiority in establishment and growth (79%), ability in supplying quality feed (49%), improved potential in controlling weeds (38%), adaptability in broader agro-ecological horizon (36%), tolerant to major insect-pests (20%), and inexpensive (or, economic 15%).  However, these six components of the framework were derived from 27 characteristics mentioned by farmers, either as a single characteristic, or by combining more than one of the above six components.  Using this yardstick, the attributes, rated by the farmers, of two APLs in Western Australia, French Serradella cv. Cadiz (Ornithopus sativus) and Biserrula cv. Casbah (Biserrula pelecinus), commonly known as  Cadiz and Casbah, respectively, was compared. 

This newly developed APL framework may be used as a tool for understanding adoption potential of any annual pasture legume in Western Australia, and it may also act as a guide for those breeding or selecting APLs in the state.

Keywords: Annual pasture legume, adoption, Biserrula cv. Casbah (Biserrula pelecinus), farmers’ perception, French Serradella cv. Cadiz (Ornithopus sativus), pasture characteristics

Introduction

It is the farmers who are the ultimate decision-makers on whether to select an enterprise or adopt a technology for their farms.  Such decisions are made on the basis of farming circumstances, formally known as farming systems.  A farming system is not merely “a collection of crops and animals to which one can apply this input or that and expect immediate results.  Rather, it is a complicated interwoven mesh of soils, plants, animals, implements, workers, other inputs, environmental influences with the strands held and manipulated by a person called farmer who given his preferences and aspirations, attempts to produce outputs and technology available to them.  It is the farmer’s unique understanding of his immediate environment both natural and socio-economic that results in his farming systems” (Hossain and Salam 1993).  This indicates the importance of knowing farmers’ individual understandings of a technology – its essential attributes – to fit it effectively into their systems. 

Western Australia has 182 million hectares of arable land in its cropping-belt (ABS 2008) where farming systems are predominantly a mixture of crops and pastures (Dolling 2006).  Depending on regions, the ratio of crop and pasture varies between 0% and 50% (Salam et al 2009).  In this system, a number of annual pasture legumes (APLs) occupy almost 91% of total pasture (annual and perennial pasture legumes and grass) (Nichols et al 2007).  The importance of APLs in Western Australian farming systems is well recognised (Puckridge and French 1983; Kenny 1984; Loi 1999; Howieson et al 2000).  This led to the development and release of increasing numbers of commercial APLs since 1990.  For example, French Serradella cv. Cadiz (Ornithopus sativus) commonly known as Cadiz has been particularly developed for low fertility, acid soils (Nutt and Paterson 1997); Santorini is a cultivar of yellow serradella (Ornithopus compressus), which was released to enhance the uptake of serradella in medium rainfall areas (350-450 mm), particularly where the rainfall is greater than 400 mm (Nutt and Paterson 1998); Biserrula cv. Casbah (Biserrula pelecinus) commonly known as Casbah is suitable for use on fine-textured soils with acidic and alkaline reactions, including sandy loams and clay loams (Loi et al 2005a); Frontier is a new early-maturing cultivar of Balansa clover (Trifolium michelianum) that has potential in low and medium rainfall (325-450 mm annual average) zones of Western Australia (Revell and Nutt 2001).  Almost all the effort towards development of those APLs were concentrated on agro-ecological suitability.

Agro-ecological suitability is an essential factor for optimum productivity of a crop or pasture species (Cossins 1988; Van Ittersum et al 1998; Thornton et al 2009) therefore it plays an important role in adoption.  Cadiz and Casbah, two APLs introduced in 1996 and 1997, respectively, were thought to be well adapted in the Western Australian cropping-belt (Howieson et al 2000).  Our previous study calculated the maximum attainable adoption potential of Cadiz as 0.99 and Casbah as 0.89 million ha; by contrast their achieved adoption was estimated as 0.23 and 0.18 million ha, respectively (Salam et al 2009).  This indicates that fitting APLs in Western Australian farming systems may require meeting ‘farmers preferred attributes’ in addition to their agro-ecological suitability.

Pasture Australia (2007) identified barriers that lead to modest outcomes from research and development investment on pasture.  Some of the listed barriers included: poor understanding of farming system’s need, absence of partnerships among researchers, farmers and other industry stakeholders. 

Adoption of an innovation depends on many factors and can vary with context (Feder and Umali 1993; Rogers 2003; Pannell et al 2006).  User’s perceptions of an innovation play an important role in its adoption.  This is evident in engineering technologies.  For example, it was emphasised that pre-use expectations played an important role in adopting electronic messaging (Rice et al 1990).  Perceived usefulness and attitude influencing the adoption of Smartphones by health professionals in the USA has been described (Park and Chen 2007).  Researchers observed that perceived risk was the inhibiting factor in adopting e-services (Featherman and Pavlou 2003).   In the field of agriculture, research included the testing of perceived risk as one of the several explanations for why farmers grow more than one variety of the same crop (Smale et al 1994).   A farmer’s perceived net economic benefits of an innovation play an important role in its adoption (Pannell et al 2006).   It is thus evident that a farmer’s perception of a new innovation can be an important variable to study to understand adoption of an innovation, as has been done by others (Rogers 2003; Hintze et al 2003; Adrian et al 2005).  It is important to understand and assess farmers’ perceived attributes of a new technology in order to achieve its successful adoption (Batz et al 1999).  Currently, to best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive documentation on characteristics of annual pasture legumes perceived by the farmers of Western Australia.

Consequently, this study was undertaken to understand the perceptions of Western Australian farmers on annual pasture legumes for their systems and thereby develop a pasture characteristics framework.  The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) identify the broad attributes of APLs perceived by the farmers, and (ii) use the pasture characteristics framework developed from these attributes to understand the adoption status of two APLs, Cadiz and Casbah.

Methodology 

Data collection

A survey was conducted to understand Western Australian farmers’ perceptions about attributes that would influence their adoption of annual pasture legumes in their farming systems.  For this, an open-ended questionnaire was developed following several discussions with researchers, policy makers, agri-business experts and farming systems practitioners who were associated with pastures research and development in the state.  Past experience showed that farmers were reluctant to answer lengthy questions.  Therefore, the questionnaire was kept to one page to achieve the best responses from farmers.  The approach of open-ended questioning was applied to understand the breadth and depth of the issues (Kendall and Kendall 2008) experienced by farmers in their environments.  It has been mentioned (Patton 1990) that qualitative enquiry through open-ended questioning will allow respondents to respond in their own terms without imposing predetermined responses.  One particular question was formulated in the survey questionnaire - “What is your dream pasture species?”  The word “dream” was chosen here carefully to help open up the farmer’s mind and to encourage speaking up about their feelings towards new APL species.  Questions were also asked regarding their experiences with two APLs, Cadiz and Casbah and their strengths and weaknesses in their farming systems.

The survey was conducted during July through December 2007.  The “triangulation approach” has been recommended, as a single method seldom adequately solves the problems of rival factors (Denzin 1978).  This was supported by others (Patton 1990) and was applied in this study with the use of face-to-face interviews, personal mail-outs and general distribution of questionnaires tagged with agricultural information booklets.  The face-to-face interviews were conducted on two days, 29 and 30th August 2007, during the “Dowerin Field Days”.  The significance of this field day, as the oldest field day in Western Australia, is that it is the biggest showcase of agricultural machinery and information in the state.  Farmers from different locations within and outside of state come to this event to exchange their views on their agricultural practices.  It created an opportunity to talk with many farmers and understand their perceptions of APLs.  In this step, either the questions in the questionnaire were discussed openly and freely with the farmers and the conversation was recorded, or farmers who volunteered to do so completed the questionnaire.  For personal mail-outs, the mailing addresses of the farmers were collected from the database of the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, and the questionnaires were mailed together with a note on project objectives and explanation of why the information was needed.  They were also included with agricultural information booklet, known as “Agricultural Memos”.  Agricultural Memos are distributed freely and published bi-monthly by the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia during the cropping season to update seasonal tactics.

Data analysis

Development of the pasture characteristics framework

The development of the pasture characteristics framework was essentially a qualitative analysis.  In reviewing five traditions in qualitative research – biography, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case study – it was emphasised that only grounded theory leads to the creation of a theory that relates to a particular situation (Creswell 1998).  Researchers also agree that the major difference between the grounded theory and other approaches to qualitative research is its emphasis upon theory development (Strauss and Corbin 1998).  Thereafter, key points or codes were constantly compared with each other and grouped into broader concepts at a higher, more abstract level which we refer to as categories (Pandit 2009).  Categories were then grouped into broader groups of similar concepts, or “Emerging Core Variable” (Tavakol et al 2006), which we have referred to as a “component”.  The relative strength of each emerging core variable was measured as the per cent of respondents mentioning it.

Development of component-assembly for a Western Australian pasture characteristics framework

Farmers’ responses to the dream pasture question, when synthesised into the APL characteristics framework, in many cases spread over more than one component.  The component-assembly shows the various criteria and associations the farmers of Western Australia asked for the ‘dream’ pasture.  The component-assembly of the dream pasture was quantified as per cent of respondents mentioning it.

Comparison of farmers’ perceptions of Cadiz and Casbah attributes with characteristics of a dream pasture

Farmers, who had previous experience with Cadiz and Casbah, also attributed characteristics to Cadiz and Casbah.  Those attributions were synthesised into six components of the newly developed APL characteristics framework.  Thereafter, the components, quantified as percent respondents, were compared between the dream pasture and Cadiz and Casbah.  In addition, the attributes put forward by the respondent farmers as strengths and weaknesses of Cadiz and Casbah in relation to pasture characteristics were compared.

Results 

APL-characteristics framework

Seventy-eight farmers (62% out of pasture growers listed as of 2005) voluntarily responded to the survey, representing 36 shires, out of 103 shires in the Western Australian cropping-belt.  A shire is an administrative unit like what used to exist in the UK and equivalent to a county in the USA.  Those 36 shires represented all the three broad regions in the cropping-belt, northern, central and southern agricultural regions (details of the regional division can be found in (Salam et al 2009). 

The APL characteristics for Western Australian farming systems derived from the study are shown in Figure 1.          

In this study, 221 responses on perceived pasture characteristics were sorted into 47 distinct responses, based on distinctness in meaning (Figure 1).  Forty-seven responses were classified into 35 codes, which were ultimately converged into nine categories and six emerging core variables (Figure 1).  The six emerging core variables are referred to as the components of the Western Australian pasture characteristics framework.  These six components are: superiority in establishment and growth (establishment and growth (EG)), ability in supplying feed and its quality (feed supply and quality (Fsq)), improved potential in controlling weeds (weed control (W)), adaptability in broader agro-ecological horizon (adaptability (A)), tolerant of major insect-pests (insect tolerance (I)) and inexpensive (economic (E)). 

Establishment and growth was the most sought-after characteristic mentioned by 79% of farmers (Figure 2), this was followed by feed supply and quality (49% farmers) and weed control (38% farmers).  Adaptability was mentioned by 36% farmers, with insect tolerance mentioned by 20% farmers.  Only 15% of the respondent farmers mentioned the economic component.  

The perceived component-assembly of Western Australian pasture characteristics framework

The six components of the Western Australian pasture characteristics framework were mentioned either singly or in combination with others to give 27 different combinations of components (Table 1).

Of those combinations, 17 (representing 79% of farmers) included the establishment and growth component either by itself or together with other components.  The remaining 10 combinations (representing 21% of farmers) did not include establishment and growth.  In fact, 13% of farmers’ (the highest of any combination) mentioned establishment and growth as the only characteristics for their dream pasture.  The next best combination, mentioned by 10% of farmers, was establishment and growth in combination with feed supply and quality, and weed control (Table 1).

Strength and weakness of Cadiz and Casbah

Fifty-nine per cent of farmers mentioned that Casbah was hard-seeded in their farming systems, but this was not mentioned for Cadiz (Table 2).  More farmers mentioned hard-seededness in Casbah than for the dream pasture (28% farmers expressed their need for this attribute together with early germinating).

Farmers had divided opinions about the reliability of regeneration with both Cadiz and Casbah. About 13% of farmers viewed reliable regeneration as an attribute in their dream pasture, and 6-9% farmers found it in Cadiz and Casbah, whereas an almost similar percentage did not.  Fifty percent farmers mentioned that Cadiz had a weakness in coping with a ‘false’ break (unseasonal rain), whereas 3% farmers mentioned it as strength of Casbah. An ability to cope with a false break was mentioned by 10% of farmers as a need in their dream pasture.  A few (2-3%) farmers rated seed-setting as strength of Cadiz and Casbah, which is much below the expectation (11% farmers) measured for dream pasture.  Although, no farmers mentioned seed bank longevity as strength of Cadiz and Casbah, 3% of farmers expressed this attribute in their dream pasture; on the contrary, 2% of farmers mentioned Cadiz had weakness in this attribute.  A number of farmers (22%) mentioned that Casbah had a weakness on easy establishment, slightly higher than Cadiz (15% farmers).  These figures are close to what (20%) farmers desired in their dream pasture.  The rating on the strength of Cadiz and Casbah related to general vigour was almost similar (13-16% farmers), whereas for early vigour the rating was mixed.  Six percent farmers stated Casbah had early vigour, whereas 9% farmers mentioned it as weakness in Casbah.  No farmer mentioned persistence as strength with either.  On the contrary, 15% of farmers referred to it as weakness with Cadiz. Eleven percent of farmers cited this attribute to be included in a dream pasture.

None of the farmers mentioned that Cadiz and Casbah had good chemical tolerance in weed control.  In contrast, 30% farmers wanted this attribute in their dream pasture.  Competition with grass weeds was not mentioned as a strength for Cadiz and Casbah, whereas 11% farmers wanted this attribute in the dream pasture.  Moreover, 8% of farmers stated that Cadiz had weakness on this attribute.  On the positive side, 31% farmers found Casbah had the strength in controlling weeds through grazing, whereas on negative side, 13% of farmers mentioned that Cadiz did not have this characteristic.

Few (3% with Casbah) farmers mentioned the ability of the APLs to supply feed through grazing compared to the expectation (10%) with the dream pasture.  Almost an equally divided opinion was delivered by the farmers in relation to early feed supply of Cadiz, 15% stated it as strength and 17% as a weakness; 8% of farmers wanted this quality in their dream pasture. Cadiz had strength in late feed supply, expressed by 23% of farmers.  However, few (6%) farmers expressed this as weakness in Cadiz.  A few farmers (3%) mentioned that Casbah was capable of supplying dry feed for summer.  An majority (69%) of farmers put forward that Casbah had a toxic substance (causing photosensitisation) compared to very few with Cadiz (2% farmers).  By comparison, 15% of farmers mentioned they wanted their dream pasture to be toxin-free.  Casbah was regarded as slightly more nutritious than Cadiz, as expressed by 6 and 4% of farmers, respectively.  However, 31% of farmers mentioned that their dream pasture should have good nutrients, good crude protein (CP), digestible, and good dry matter (DM).

Neither of the legumes were perceived as suitable to a wide range of soils, with only 4% and 3% of farmers stating it as strength for Cadiz and Casbah.  Few (4%) farmers mentioned that Cadiz was suited to acidic soils, whereas none mentioned it for Casbah. Cadiz (10%) is perceived as better adapted to sandy soils than Casbah (3%).  Nineteen per cent of farmers perceive Casbah has good drought tolerance, whereas 9% did not.

Farmers had divided opinions on tolerance of the APLs to insect damage. Some viewed Cadiz and Casbah as tolerant (4 and 3%, respectively), but others (17 and 3%, repectively) said otherwise.  With respect to redlegged earthmite and aphids, Casbah was rated not resistant to these pests.  On economics, farmers found seed price, establishment cost and harvest cost were low for both the APLs, although some believed harvesting costs were high.

Farmers largely agreed that Cadiz (21%) and Casbah (28%) were good legumes for boosting nitrogen for the next crops.  They also found Cadiz fitted well with their cropping systems, but some had a problem with wind erosion.

Discussion 

Farmers’ perceptions about a specific kind of technology are based on the need for it in their farming systems. Pannell et al. (2006, p. 1408) remark, ‘The core common theme from several decades of research on technology adoption is that landholder adoption of a conservation practice depends on their expectation that it will allow them to better achieve their goals. If the landholder does not perceive that goals are likely to be met, adoption will certainly not follow’. A similar message has been revealed from other studies (Adesina and Zinnah 1993; Adesina and Baidu-Forson 1995; Langyintuo and Mekuria 2005). These indicate successful adoption of an agricultural innovation depends on farmers’ perceptions. Recognising this importance, this study framed the characteristics of annual pasture legumes for Western Australian farming systems since detailed information on this was not available in the literature. Using a grounded theory approach to analyse the 221 responses of 61 farmers from 36 shires of the Western Australian cropping-belt, a pasture characteristics framework was developed that consists of six components: superiority in establishment and growth (establishment and growth), ability in supply feed and maintain its quality (feed supply and quality), improved potential in controlling weeds (weed control), adaptability in broader agro-ecological horizon (adaptability), tolerant of major insect-pests (insect tolerance) and inexpensive (economic).

With 79% of farmers mentioning establishment and growth, either alone (13%) or in combination with other characteristics (66%), it appears easy establishment is a high priority for farmers of Western Australia. A recent survey of farmers using similar structure and questions conducted nine months after this study (Davis and Hogg 2008) also revealed that establishment and growth-related characteristics of APLs were the most sought-after by the farmers of Western Australia. Current APLs require special techniques to achieve better establishment. Biserrula requires special establishment techniques i.e. topdressing, direct drilling, full seed bed preparation, sowing seed shallow in the soil and controlling weeds (Freebairn 2004). Learning all these establishment techniques can be a barrier to adoption. As a quality, hard seededness (seed coat impermeability) helps seed to germinate in favourable weather (Taylor 1993) and increases seed bank longevity for many years. Hard seededness ensures APL seeds survive in very dry summers; however, the level of hard seededness can vary and affect germination levels of an APL (Patane et al 2008). Again, lack of hard seededness of an APL (such as Cadiz) causes sensitivity to a false-break (unseasonal rain). For example, sudden and short downpours of rain during the summer cause APL seedlings to germinate. These germinated seedlings do not get adequate follow-up rain and ultimately die in hot weather. This causes low seed bank density; therefore, farmers need to re-sow to maintain adequate seed bank density. Persistence is also an important attribute of an APL which ensures plants survive droughts, heavy grazing pressure and maintain higher long-term productivity (Evans 1996). Biserrula has deep root systems, which allows it to use stored soil water and survive against drought. General vigour is also important, which ensures growth of the APL. Being long seasoned ensures an APL provides longer green feed supply for grazing animals and hay production (Sulas 2005).

Next to establishment and growth (79%), feed supply and quality (49%), and weed control (38%) were perceived as important by farmers. Of the farmers who mentioned establishment and growth as a characteristic of a dream pasture, 50% also opted for feed supply and quality and 44% for weed control. Farmers’ responses appeared to be in the line with two major objectives of pasture farming in Western Australia. Farmers in the cropping belt who have livestock (mainly merino sheep), need APLs that supply ample feed and maintain feed quality (i.e. sufficient dry matter, high crude protein and good digestibility and absence of toxic ingredients). Summer and autumn are crucial for livestock as feed supply and quality deteriorate by these times of year (McFarland et al 2006). Livestock farmers want APLs that minimize the autumn and summer feed gap (Ghadim 2000) by producing a longer lasting feed supply. Weeds are also a big problem for Western Australian farmers, particularly since some of the weeds have developed herbicide resistance, a serious production issue for Australian cropping systems (Jones et al 2005). Annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum Gaudin) and wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum L) are the most widespread and economically damaging weeds in the Western Australia cropping region (Owen et al 2007). These weeds are developing multiple or cross herbicide resistance due to continuous herbicide use (Gibson et al 2008). Some farmers grow APLs in crop rotation to control weeds. Therefore, farmers want APLs to be tolerant to chemicals, so that they can control weeds. They also want APLs to be competitive, growing faster than weeds and to persist heavy grazing, so that they can control weeds without using chemicals.

Western Australian farmers face agro-climatic hazards; thus 36% perceived that pastures should have the ability to withstand those hazards. Therefore, farmers seek APLs adapted to suit the wide range of climatic conditions (temperature fluctuation, rainfall variation, drought, frost) and different soil types (acidic, saline, sandy) of Western Australia. For example, Australia had major droughts in 1965, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1994, 2002 and regional droughts in 1997, 1976, 1991 and 1987. In the 2002 drought, Western Australia grain production fell 50% at an opportunity cost of $1.6 billion (Stephens et al 2003). It has been predicted that due to climate change Western Australia farm profit could be reduced by 12% by 2030 (Kingwell and John 2003). It has also been predicted that frequency of soil-moisture-based droughts would increase by 80% in Western Australia (Mpelasoka et al. 2008). A requirement for APLs to withstand climate variability and maintain productivity under conditions of severe climate variability is therefore highly desirable. Characteristics including: ability to cope with drought stress, short seasoned to avoid the drought period, low water requirements could be beneficial for an APL. Waterlogging is also an issue for the Western Australian farmers in some regions. For example, some APLs (Cadiz and Casbah) do not tolerate waterlogging at all and die within 1 to 2 days after the onset of severe waterlogging (Loi 2007 personal communication).

Most farmers face biological stresses mainly from redlegged earth mite (Halotydeus destructor), a major pest in legume pastures, costing over A$100 million annually (Ridsdill-Smith 1991). Redlegged earth mite damages seedlings and reduces plant growth, causing loss in production. It also reduces the palatability of pasture legumes, which ultimately restricts consumption of pasture legumes by livestock (Umina 2008).

Surprisingly, few farmers (15%) perceived cost as a significant component of the Western Australian pasture characteristics framework. Falconer (2008) found in her case studies that farmers of low rainfall zones adopted a dry sowing technique for APLs to cope with climate variability. Financially they did not gain much in adopting this new technique but they were happy with their decision. They believed that although the new technique did not give financial benefits directly, it saved their properties being damaged by water erosion from recent major thunderstorm. It is a clear indication that farmers of Western Australia are not completely rigid about the cost of technology, but rather they look for good comprehensive returns from the system that incorporates the new APL.

The responses of farmers on perceived pasture characteristics were multilayered. Most of the farmers (75%) mentioned more than one component in the pasture characteristics framework. Farmers viewed the six components of pasture characteristics framework, discussed above, in 27 options, singly or in combinations.

This study also compared Cadiz and Casbah in relation to the components of Western Australian pasture characteristics framework. Overall, Casbah appeared to be better suited than Cadiz to farmer requirements based on the pasture characteristics framework. Farmers rated Cadiz poorly on the weed control component. Cadiz is sensitive to broad-leafed herbicides, which makes it harder to control broad-leafed weeds in Cadiz stands (Nutt and Paterson 1998). Cadiz has been recorded as sensitive to Tigrex (diflufenican and MCPA), MCPA, Jaguar (diflufenican and bromoxynil), Igran (terbutryne), glyphosate and Gramoxone (paraquat) herbicides (Revell and Rose 2001; Gillam 2007).

Both Cadiz and Casbah also appear to have deficiencies in establishment and growth capability when compared to expectations of the pasture characteristics framework. There could be a number of reasons for this.

• Firstly, Cadiz and Casbah need a good level of land preparation before sowing. Land must be free of weeds as Cadiz and Casbah can not tolerant many herbicides, especially broad-leafed weeds. For successful establishment and growth, consecutive weed clearance programs need to be done in the year prior to sowing. Spray topping with glyphosate or paraquat (a common weed control technique) can not be used in the first year of Casbah establishment as these can decrease seed production by up to 85%.

  
  

• Secondly, Cadiz seed must be inoculated with its unique inoculant “Biserrula Special” (Loi et al. 2005b).

  
  

• Thirdly, a substantial amount of fertiliser may be needed for successful establishment of Cadiz and Casbah. For example, for Casbah 150kg/ha superphosphate or super potash is recommended for a sandy soil (Loi et al. 2005b) and for Cadiz 120-150 kg/ha superphosphate and 200 kg/ha potash are advised for seed production (Nutt and Paterson 1997).

  
  

• Fourthly, a careful grazing plan, i.e. light grazing is necessary in the first year to ensure Cadiz or Casbah has good establishment and regeneration in subsequent years.

  
  

• Fifthly, Cadiz is a soft-seeded pasture, so it germinates easily on false break, which decreases the seed bank, thus re-seeding may be necessary for re-establishment (Nutt and Paterson 1997). However, farmers of Western Australia are accustomed to depending on self-regenerating pasture, such as subterranean clover and medics, which germinate from soil seed banks after the cropping phase. Re-sowing of Cadiz each year is not seen as an usual practice by farmers.

  
  

• Finally, a good pest management programme is often required for successful establishment of Cadiz and Casbah. Both pastures are prone to redlegged earth mite attack. Moreover, cowpea aphid and blue-green aphid are often a problem with Cadiz, whereas bud-worm may cause serious damage to Casbah. Spraying insecticides may be essential for managing these insects. These factors provide a ready explanation for why farmers are not totally satisfied with the establishment and growth attributes associated with Cadiz and Casbah.

A large number of farmers (69%) rated photosensitisation as a weakness of Casbah. Photosensitisation is like sunburn and usually affects an animal’s ears, muzzle, tail and backline, where the affected areas start to swell (Loi et al 2005b). In severe cases, there may be skin lesions, secondary infections, wool and animal losses (DAFWA 2006). However, the problem is manageable. For example, it has been advised that grazing sheep should be avoided, if possible, during spring (Loi et al 2005b) noting that young, and bare-shorn animals are especially sensitive to photosensitisation (DAFWA 2006). It appears that some farmers managed the photosensitisation issue better than others. During the survey, three farmers mentioned that they had good profits from cultivating Casbah even though they faced the problem of photosensitisation. They mentioned that they knew how to deal with that the problem. For example, one farmer mentioned that 40 of his sheep were affected by photosensitisation. He had a good selling price for all his sheep except one which lost an ear (due to photosensitisation) as the shipping company did not accept that particular animal. However he was able to sell that sheep in a local market.

This study shows, as indicated by 31% farmers, that Casbah has the strength in controlling weeds through selective grazing. Animals within a short period of grazing avoid Casbah plants as it tastes bitter and prefer weeds, a great benefit for reducing herbicide tolerant weeds, such as annual ryegrass.

Overall, both APLs have potentials and both have some weaknesses. In future research, pasture breeders can improve adoption of these APLs through correcting these weaknesses and educating farmers on tactical management issues. The pasture characteristics framework developed from this study can be used as a research guideline while developing or selecting a new pasture for Western Australian farmers.

Conclusions 

• There are two implications of this study. One, the framework for annual pasture legumes may be used as a tool or an indicator for understanding adoption potential of any annual future pasture legume in Western Australia. Second, the framework may act as a guide to pasture breeders while breeding or selecting a pasture for Western Australia.

  
  

• The newly developed APL characteristics framework is based on the opinions of 78 volunteer farmers across Western Australian grain-belt. A further research may be carried out to test this framework on a larger sample of farmers. Since the pasture characteristics framework was developed using current perceptions of Western Australian farmers about annual pasture legumes, changes in the farming situations in future may alter the perceptions of pasture characteristics. Therefore, a periodic survey may be necessary to account for any changes in perceptions of pasture characteristics, so that the framework can be used confidently.
   

Acknowledgements 

This study is a part of PhD work being conducted by the senior author at the Curtin University, Western Australia.  The senior author thankfully acknowledges the Australian Commonwealth Government for financial support through the Australian Postgraduate Award and the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) for generous research support.  The senior author extends her thanks to Dr Angelo Loi of DAFWA pasture management unit “Profitable Pastures” for consultations.  The senior author also thanks to the farmers of Western Australia for enormous support during data collection.  The senior author thankfully acknowledges the anonymous reviewer for his/her constructive suggestion on improvement of the manuscript.

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Received 14 May 2010; Accepted 27 July 2010; Published 1 September 2010

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