PASTURE CLEANING INCREASES CLOVER CONTENT OF SPRING PASTURE
L.J. Hamilton and J.E. Court
Department of Agriculture Victoria, P.O. Box 483, Bairnsdale, Vic 3875

Pasture cleaning and pasture topping are techniques identified over two decades ago to improve the clover content of pasture (1).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Two trials established in East Gippsland, Victoria during spring 1994 evaluated the effectiveness of single rates of glyphosate (0.45 g/l a.i./ha) and paraquat (300 g/l a.i./ha) on the composition of degraded sheep pastures. Glyphosate was applied with 125 l/ha water, paraquat with 250 l/ha water plus 62 ml/ha non-ionic ethoxylate (wetting agent). Botanical composition was measured using the rod-point technique (3) six weeks later.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1. Botanical composition (%) six weeks after spraying (spray date) at two sites.

Species	Fernbank (6.10.94)			l.s.d.	Ensay (14.11.94)			l.s.d
	Control	Glyphosate	Paraquat	0.05	Control	Glyphosate	Paraquat	0.05
Sub clover	4	3	15	3.5	1	8	13	4.7
Fog grass	22	1	3	3.4	-	-	-	-
Bent & Couch grass	8	-	15	2.6	5	7	27	4.7
Sporobolus indicus	21	21	18	6.4	-	-	-	-
Microlaena	-	-	-	-	48	29	2	5.9
Bare ground	9	32	17	3.6	5	9	7	4.1
Dead pasture	36	43	32	7.8	41	47	51	5.2

Degraded pastures are common on sheep properties. Feed quality is low as the percentages of grass weeds are high and clover content low. Previous work (1, 2, 4) showed that the early spring application of paraquat rapidly increased the clover content of grass dominant pasture. The results of this trial (Table 1) showed that paraquat provided a greater increase in clover content than glyphosate. Both herbicides can be used for pasture cleaning but the choice depends on the grass weeds present. As both herbicides are non-residual, resowing clover is possible after treatment provided there is adequate bare ground.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The project was supported by the International Wool Secretariat and Gippsland Grazing Industry Training Committee.

REFERENCES

1. Arnold, G.N, Barrett, D.N. and Lapins, P. 1970. Proc. XIth Int. Grasslands Cong. Australia. pp. 866-869.
2. Cullen, N.A. 1970. Proc. XIth Int. Grasslands Congress. Australia. pp. 112-116.
3. Hamilton, L.J. 1994. Proc. 35th Vic. Grasslands Soc. Conf. Ballarat, Australia. pp. 15-21.
4. Little, D.A. and Frensham, A.B. 1993. Aust. J. of Exp. Agric. 33, pp. 871-875.