New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Native pasture and the farmer's choice--evaluation of management and sowing options

J. CROSTHWAITE

Department of Agriculture and Resource
Management
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia

B. MADDEN

Agricultural Decisions
52 McLeans Rd
Little River 3211, Australia

K. F. O'CONNOR

Professor Emeritus of Range Management
Lincoln University
Canterbury, New Zealand

Abstract  Interest in the role of native pasture in production, land protection, and conservation is growing. Native pasture is often complementary to high-input pasture based on introduced perennial grasses, and both fit into a larger whole-farm and farm-family context. This paper presents several wide-ranging propositions which help frame this context in which farmers make decisions about native pasture, and in which budgetary analysis can play a useful role. A case study, based on south-western Victoria, evaluates the profitability of retaining native pasture or replacing it (or run-down pasture) by sowing an introduced perennial pasture. The paper also evaluates sowing native pasture where it is not present. It is concluded for south-western Victoria that sowing introduced perennial pasture is likely to be most profitable, but that retaining remaining areas of native pasture will leave farmers at least as well off in the long term. Sowing native pasture may have a niche role, as seed prices fall. Results are likely to differ when the approach is applied in other regions.

Keywords  economics; native pasture; grassland; low-input grasses; grazing management; plant improvement; pasture improvement; perennial pasture; sustainable agriculture

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 1996, Vol. 39: 541-557

0028-8233/96/3904-0541 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1996

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1454K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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