TAGASASTE FORAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Production from established rows of tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) was measured over 2 years at Burnham and Springston in Canterbury, New Zealand using three cutting treatments (cut to 150 cm, 50 cm, or to 50 cm every alternate harvest) and four sheep-grazing treatments ("hard" and "lax" grazing with and without a post-graze trim to 50 cm). At Springston, annual edible production (leaf and stem less than 6 mm in diameter, in g dry matter (DM)/tree) was highest from cut (330 g) and graze/trim (360 g) treatments and lower from graze-only treatments (190 g) (P < 0.05). At Burnham, annual edible production was 450 g from cut treatments and 155 g from the lax graze treatment. The hard graze and graze/trim treatments at Burnham were abandoned when April grazing and subsequent frosts killed those trees without a protective canopy. Extrapolating from the most productive tagasaste treatment, a practical layout of 7500 trees/ha occupying 30% of the area would give annual yields of 2.5-3.4 t edible tagasaste DM/ha. At the present sites, with 30% tagasaste and 70% pasture, this provides an increase of up to 22% in DM/ha over pasture alone.