EverCrop and EverCrop Decide (P2 FP05)

The EverCrop and EverCrop Decide projects are investigating the roles that perennials can play to address some of the current and future production and sustainability challenges in the cropping-based zones of southern Australia. By recognising and responding to whole-farm and management aspects at the farm-scale, EverCrop aims to increase profitability, resilience and environmental outcomes in Australian cropping regions.

More specifically, it is identifying and developing the roles that perennials can play in mixed farming systems and associated management principles that underpin them by bringing together the strengths of localised participatory research and development and evaluation approaches to create advanced farming systems modelling, analysis and decision-support tools such as EverCrop Decide.

Objectives:

• Develop new or modified farming systems in each of three agro-climatic zones (the uniform-rainfall region near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, a medium rainfall region in the northern Western Australian wheatbelt and a low-rainfall region in the Mallee region of Victoria and South Australia) that improve profit, diversify enterprises and provide positive environmental impacts through the incorporation of perennials
• Develop ways to overcome constraints to the adoption of perennials in cropping systems by documenting the costs and benefits of particular uses of perennials in mixed farming systems relative to other options
• Develop cropping systems analysis tools and approaches that allow farmers and agribusiness to evaluate placement.

Activities

Field work has begun in the three targeted agro-climatic regions which consist of a mixture of core research sites with detailed research being carried out on novel plants; on-farm trials, which test the farm and paddock-scale practicalities and performance of perennials; and modelling to evaluate the likely performance and whole-farm economics of the system under a range of current and future scenarios.

Publications

EverCrop has produced several publications that have been released as FFI CRC Technical Reports. These reports can be downloaded below.

	Future Farm Industries CRC Technical Report 1 Increasing farm profit through the use of perennial grasses in a mixed farming enterprise User Evaluation Uniform Rainfall Zone NSW. Download

	Future Farm Industries CRC Technical Report 2 Contribution of perennial grass-lucerne pastures to Dorper lamb-cereal cropping enterprise User Evaluation Uniform Rainfall Zone NSW. Download

	Future Farm Industries CRC Technical Report 3 A survey of the use of perennial pastures as part of the pasture crop  rotation in the mixed farming zone of southern New South Wales. Download

For further information about this project, email project co leaders Dr Rick Llewellyn or Dr Michael Robertson.