March 21, 2003

Farmers will soon have a new type of pasture available to them following the development of two new hardseeded cultivars of French serradella.

Western Australian Department of Agriculture research officer Brad Nutt said they had been developed by mass selection for hardseededness from the cultivar Cadiz.

"Cadiz French serradella has been adopted over large areas in the south west of Western Australia since it was released in 1996. The reasons for this are its high level of productivity on deep, relatively infertile sands combined with a high level of harvestability and a ready germination without further processing," said Mr Nutt.

"Unfortunately the lack of hardseededness of Cadiz, and until now, all other cultivars of French serradella meant the longevity of the seed bank was limited, as was the rotational application of the species", he said.

One of the cultivars is very similar in appearance to Cadiz and could be used for conserved fodder production, whilst the second cultivar is likely to be more tolerant of grazing.

Mr Nutt said both lines produced yellow seeds compared to the usually brown seeds of Cadiz.

He said the hardseed character in these cultivars would enable them to be used in crop rotations and would also protect the seed reserves from germination during out of season rainfall.

The new cultivars will be registered under Plant Breeder’s Rights and released to licenced producers for the 2003 growing season, with commercial seed expected to be available in 2004.