Anna Mills 
With drought conditions developing along the east coast we thought maybe we would throw some numbers out to put a price on how lucerne can transform dryland farming systems. Here, at Lincoln, the 2014/15 rainfall for the Jul-Dec period is about 170 mm – or about half what is expected over the same period in … Read more
Featured Image: Recorded for posterity – Dick Lucas locates a lone white clover plant in an Irish pasture while attending a field day as part of the International Grasslands Congress held in Dublin in 2005. Our resident annual clover guru Dick (Richard) Lucas was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for … Read more
In this video members of the Lincoln University Dryland Pastures Research team explain the impacts of nitrogen fertility and water availability on the current pasture production of dryland cocksfoot and perennial ryegrass pastures at Ashley Dene (approx. 3 minutes).
Monthly rainfalls have been below average here at Lincoln since April. Pasture growth rates have slowed as water stress conditions have developed and all our dryland experiments at Ashley Dene have been de-stocked earlier than usual. On Monday we released Dick Lucas, our resident annual clover guru, at Ashley Dene to talk about soils, their … Read more
Posted on behalf of Prof. Derrick Moot This grazing management is based on new research out of Lincoln University. It is recommended ONLY for farmers with a large proportion (>40%) of their properties in lucerne who require greater areas to lamb on in early spring and who already follow the optimum rotational grazing management system … Read more
Professor Derrick Moot will be in Blenheim on Thursday 28th August. Come and get first hand the latest information of Dryland Pasture Research from Lincoln University. Please pass on the invite to your neighbours/colleagues. Further details below. Coffee/tea on arrival and supper to follow. Please RSVP by Sunday August 24th for catering purposes to Warwick Lissaman at: Email: … Read more
This month we have a change of scenery with our video blog, and have moved from the paddocks of Sawdon to the laboratory at Lincoln. In this video we look at the first stages of analysing root nodules for specific rhizobia types. By doing this we can test whether the rhizobia, present in the root … Read more
We’ve put up a new video post, narrated by PhD student Travis Ryan-Salter, which outlines the March lupin harvest at Sawdon Station (13 minutes).
Posted on behalf of Dick Lucas We used to refer to Tagasaste (Chamycytisus palmenta) as ‘tree lucerne’ but in fact this woody legume has few similarities to lucerne (Medicago sativa; alfalfa). The Spanish name ‘tagasaste’ helps avoid making false assumptions about its management needs. For instance, in contrast to lucerne, tagasaste does not need lime … Read more
Posted on behalf of Dick Lucas The recent early autumn, record rain in North Canterbury and other east coast areas will give perfect conditions for an early flush of sub clover seedlings in dryland pastures. In milder coastal areas and north hill faces, if sub clover/grass pastures have an average of 10 sub seedlings per … Read more