Program Overview

Background and Long-Term Strategy

The Australian pasture seed industry is estimated to generate farm gate sales of around $35 million pa from certified seed. There are a number of key issues facing the industry at the current time. In 2008-09, the area planted for certified seed was down in all species except lucerne due to the impact of the drought. This seed, which was harvested this summer (2009-10), is also suffering from a lack of worldwide demand generated from the global financial crisis, the strength of the Australian dollar against the EURO and U.S. dollar, and the collapse in the price of milk worldwide. There has also been successful lucerne seed harvest in the US and Europe. Argentina is experiencing a major drought and so has a reduced demand for Australian pasture seeds. The run on effect of this situation is that seed production will be much lower next season due to the carry over and scaling back in production in both dry land and irrigated areas.

Key long-term strategies

• Increase communication and capacity building in the pasture seed industry - 15 per cent
• Improve seed production and processing technologies to lift pasture seed production efficiency (including water use and adapting to climate variability), yield, quality, pest/disease management and processing ease - 60 per cent
• Ensure that the industry has environmentally sustainable seed production systems available - 10 per cent
• Monitor, evaluate and adopt emerging sciences and technologies to ensure that the opportunities, implications and risks of newly emerging sciences, technologies and research results (e.g. climate modeling) are understood and opportunity is provided for their adoption in the seed industry - 5 per cent
• Develop new pasture seed products, markets and farm systems - 10 per cent.