SIX new subterranean clover varieties will become available over the next five years following a five-year, $700,000 joint venture between the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) and seed company Seed Force.
Agriculture and Food Minister Dean Nalder unveiled the new clovers at the Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days last week.
Mr Nalder said the varieties were more productive with improved resistance to pests and diseases, which would lead to longer-lasting pastures.
"These new varieties were borne out of a unique five-year joint venture between DAFWA and Seed Force Australia, which combined the expertise of world-class plant breeders with the commercial skills of an industry partner," he said.
"This is an example of where government and industry has worked together to deliver a great outcome for farmers in WA and nationally."
Mr Nalder said to remain globally competitive, farmers needed to continually look to the latest technologies and genetics to keep driving productivity improvements on farm.
He said the varieties would assist the WA livestock industry, which contributes $1.8 billion to the WA economy, and the grains industry.
"These subterranean clovers deliver a range of traits to benefit livestock and crop production in the Wheatbelt and higher rainfall areas," he said.
"The new varieties are estimated to increase the value of annual livestock production by $10-$18 per hectare and the value of nitrogen input by $12-$18/ha over current varieties.
"We see this research and innovation into pastures as a critical component of improving productivity of our farming areas."
The DAFWA team was led by Dr Phil Nichols and research officer Brad Wintle with trials held across Australia.
The six varieties, Tammin, Forbes, Yanco, Rouse, Tarlee and Antillo are suited to a range of conditions in WA and Australia.
Tammin is an early flowering variety suited to Wheatbelt areas with low to medium 300-450 millimetre average rainfall and will supercede the varieties Geraldton, Dalkeith, Nungarin, Urana and Losa.
It has seedling resistance to redlegged earth mites (RLM) and is has harder seeds and more persistence in crop rotations compared with these varieties.
It also had an 11 per cent increase in biomass than Dalkeith.
Dr Nichols said RLM tended to attack as the season breaks and clovers with RLM resistance reduced its affect on seedling establishment and overall pasture production.
DAFWA said RLM caused pasture production losses in WA of more than $100 million per year.
He said Tammin's hard seed characteristic, combined with a much slower breakdown of the seed coat, meant that it was unlikely to germinate out of season in late summer or early autumn rainfall.
"This is important in the Wheatbelt areas where rainfall in February or March typically germinated sub-clover which established and dies out before the true autumn break," he said.
"Tammin will revolutionise the use of subiclover in the 300-450mm rainfall zone either sown alone or mixed with lower hard seed level varieties," he said.
Forbes is a later flowering variety and suited to a slightly higher rainfall zone of 350-525mm average rainfall and also had seedling resistance to RLM.
For high rainfall areas of 450-700mm and soils prone to waterlogging, Yanco and Rouse have a higher tolerance to waterlogging and increased disease resistance. Both varieties are hybrid white seeded types from the yanninicium subspecies and are resistant to clover scorch, leaf rust and phytophthora root rot diseases.
"Root rot is a particular problem with seedling emergence and a lot of seed sown will never actually come out of the ground," Dr Nichols said.
"The more established the seedlings are, the better pasture you've got."
Tarlee and Antillo are suited to neutral-alkaline, cracking soils found more commonly in eastern Australia and were developed as part of the national program.
Seed Force broadacre development manager David Leah said the joint venture combined public and private investment to develop improved pasture genetics.
"Seed Force brings market knowledge, international reach and financial commitment with the unrivalled and dedicated sub-clover breeding capacity of DAFWA," Mr Leah said.
Seed Force was established in Australia in 2006 and is linked with United Kingdom-based seed business RAGT.
Seed Force specialises in forage genetics but also market canola and wheat varieties.
The partnership will also open up opportunities for DAFWA and Seed Force to receive royalties when the varieties are marketed overseas.
About 20 tonnes of Rouse and Tammin will be commercially available from 2017, however strong demand from the eastern States has meant Rouse has already sold out.
Yanco will be available in limited quantities in 2018, Tarlee in 2019 and Antillo by 2020.
"The task is to highlight the productivity gains from these varieties to the farming and advisory community to ensure they can realise these gains," Mr Leah said.
Dr Nichols said as the joint venture came to a close, the department was in discussions with another seed company to develop varieties with better phosphorus efficiency and continued to improve disease and RLM resistance.
"The cost of nitrogen fertilisers and the increase in sheep production means farmers will be looking at their pastures more closely," Dr Nichols said.
