New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Invited paper

The role of C₄ grasses in New Zealand pastoral systems

J. R. Crush

AgResearch Ruakura
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
jim.crush@agresearch.co.nz

J. S. Rowarth^*

The University of Melbourne
Parkville
Vic 3010, Australia

^*Present address: Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.

Abstract   As agricultural scientists in temperate regions search for the next revolution in pasture productivity, C₄ grasses often appear in the literature as "having potential" to push through the ceiling of production. This potential has yet to be realised in high producing pastures in New Zealand, despite investigations in the 1970s, and ongoing suggestions (a) that research would enable the full value to be exploited and (b) that the advent of genetic technologies could provide the answer. This paper reviews the New Zealand and Australian literature on C₄ grasses, identifies the difficulties with incorporating them into high producing temperate grazing systems, and makes suggestions for their use in the future.

Keywords   carbon dioxide; C₄ grass; cold tolerance; digestibility; quality

 A06058; Online publication date 20 April 2007; Received 16 October 2006; accepted 13 March 2007

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2007, Vol. 50: 125—137
0028—8233/07/5002—0125 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (311K) | screen-quality (419K)

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