Cascade Demonstration Site Up & Running – Raising the Bar for Harvestable Pasture Legumes PDS
- ASHEEP & BEEF
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
The Cascade demonstration site in ASHEEP & BEEF's new Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) Raising the Bar for Harvestable Pasture Legumes is up and running.
Two more demonstration sites are due to be sown in Dalyup and Grass Patch very shortly. 2026 is the first year of the five year project. The project aims to demonstrate the uptake of high-performing harvestable pasture legumes to increase productivity and profitability of sheep and cattle in mixed farming systems, using vetch as a benchmark to refine its use and drive adoption of varieties that outperform it.
The Cascade site is located at TKO Farming, run by Mark & Liv Walter. It is in a low to medium rainfall area (~375 mm) on loam over clay shallow duplex soils.
The site was sown on 27 March 2026.
Cascade Site Treatments (1ha each):
RM4 vetch (control) – 25 kg/ha
Bladder clover cv. Diaman2ti – 5 kg/ha
Sub clover cv. Mawson – 10 kg/ha
French serradella cv. Fran2o – 5 kg/ha
Trigonella cv. Carn2ac – 10 kg/ha
Volga vetch – 25 kg/ha
Note:
Diaman2ti and Fran2o were originally intended to be sown at 10 kg/ha for demonstration purposes, however rates were reduced due to limited seed availability.
Volga vetch has shown poor germination to date. Older seed was used that was on-hand, the variety was added to the demonstration when a planned pasture variety was unavailable.
Thank you to Liv Walter for capturing images of the demonstration site progress on 9th April 2026. Use the slider to view an image of each plot.
Measurements will be taken to compare agronomic and economic performance, including soil testing, rainfall, pasture biomass and feed quality at key growth stages, harvestable seed yield, and nitrogen legacy into the following crop.
2026 demonstration sites
The first year of the project includes three demonstration sites, selected to represent different rainfall zones and soil types:
TKO Farming – Cascade: Low to medium rainfall (~375 mm), loam over clay (shallow duplex) soils.
Vandenberghe Partners – Grass Patch: Low to medium rainfall (~370 mm), deep sand, clayed / ameliorated soils.
Ridley Plains – Dalyup: Coastal. Higher rainfall (~525 mm), gravelly soils to deeper sands that have been clayed.
We look forward to seeing how these pasture options progress over the season.
More Information
Further details on this project are available via the project page.
