R.J. CLEMENTS

CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

The area of sown pastures in northern Australia should expand to 7.5 Mha by 2010, supporting about 4 M beef cattle (30–35% of the northern herd). The main constraints to the future use of sown tropical pasture plants are perceived to be: declining research funds; the high costs of establishing and maintaining improved pastures; uncertain commodity prices; an unreliable climate; the limited availability of well-adapted legumes in some areas; instability of legume based pastures, particularly in relation to weed invasion; diseases and pests of legumes; and concerns about the environmental impact of introduced plants. Several of these constraints are amenable to research. Incremental gains in reliability or reductions in costs of establishment are predicted. Well-planned collection, introduction and evaluation of exotic plants will continue to provide a steady flow of new pasture cultivars, but it will be necessary to address concerns about the environmental impact of introduced plants. There will be restrictions in future on the release of new cultivars that could become environmental weeds. Stable control of anthracnose disease of stylo is achievable within a 10 year timeframe, using modern plant-breeding techniques. Several possible approaches to reducing the maintenance fertiliser requirements of sown pastures are discussed. In order to achieve satisfactory progress in the face of these constraints, it will be necessary to maintain an adequate level of research funding and a balanced research portfolio that addresses a range of industry priorities.