Concerns about declining profitability, increased input costs, poor soil structure, dry-land salinity, soil acidification and increasing numbers of herbicide resistance weeds have prompted over 2000 farmers throughout eastern, southern and Western Australia to adopt ‘Pasture Cropping’.

The year-round ground cover created by using ‘pasture cropping’ techniques results in reduced wind and water erosion, improved soil structure, reduced weed numbers, increased nutrient availability and increased levels of soil organic carbon. The soil health benefits from plant root exudates and a large increase in organic matter derived from a mix of shallow rooted crops and deep-rooted perennial pastures are numerous and include large improvements of soil microbiology.

In an era when dryland salinity, soil acidification and loss of soil carbon are having increasing impacts on the productivity and profitability of  farming enterprises, pasture cropping is providing an option for addressing these issues.