posted on 2023-05-26, 10:28authored byEdward LefroyEdward Lefroy, Dann, PR, Wildin, JH, Wesley-Smith, RN, McGowan, AA
Experience with browse plants in Australia is briefly reviewed in terms of their forage value to animals, their economic value to the landholder and their ecological contribution to landscape stability. Of the cultivated species only two have achieved any degree of commercial acceptance (Leucaena leucocephala and Chamaecytisus palmensis). Both of these are of sufficiently high forage value to be used as the sole source of feed during seasonal periods of nutritional shortage. Both are also leguminous shrubs that establish readily from seed. It is suggested that a limitation in their present use is the reliance on stands of single species which leaves these grazing systems vulnerable to disease and insects. Grazing systems so far developed for high production and persistence of cultivated species involve short periods of intense grazing followed by long periods of recovery. Similar management may be necessary in the arid and semi-arid rangelands where palatable browse species are in decline.
History
Publication title
Agroforestry Systems
Volume
20
Article number
1-2'
Number
1-2'
Pagination
117-139
ISSN
0167-4366
Publication status
Published
Rights statement
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com