Innovations in Dryland Agriculture

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and 55 % cropped. Recent benchmarking studies undertaken in the mixed-farming
zone have shown that most cropping farmers have between 30 and 60 % of their
land in pasture depending on rainfall, some of which may be a sown pasture within
the main crop rotation, but more is in perennial pasture in longer phase rotation
(Burns and Norton 2015 ; Harries et al. 2015 ; Llewellyn and D’Emden 2010 ).
Grazing land may not always be fully used, but forms an insurance against crop loss
risk, particularly during drought years.


2.1 Regional Differences

The distribution of native grasslands that existed across Australia before white set-
tlement still influences the extent and type of grazing land on farms. Figure 4 draws
on data from the 2011 pasture audit of southern Australia (Donald 2012 ) to compare
the extent and type of pastures in each state. In WA there is no native pasture, and
sown pasture occupied only 28 % of farmland in 2011, whereas in NSW the total
extent of pasture was 80 % of the farmland area, of which only 42 % was sown to
introduced species.
In northern NSW and south-eastern Queensland, where open scattered woodland
occurs with native grasses, sporadic clearing of remnant woody vegetation contin-
ues under licence. This has increased the total extent of ‘managed’ or ‘modified’


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WA SA VicTas NSW

Fraction of land

Proportion of rural land in pasture
Improved as proportion of total pasture

Fig. 4 The proportion of rural land in pasture and in improved pasture by state in southern
Australia, after Donald ( 2012 ). Values for NSW exclude the Western Division Pastoral Lands
which fall outside the ILZ


Pastures in Australia’s Dryland Agriculture Regions

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