From Springwood@mailbox.uq.oz.auWed Apr 17 00:28:05 1996 Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 11:05:40 GMT From: Chris L To: sustag-public@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: WEB PAGE: Tagasaste browse shrub Dr Laurie Snook, an agricultural researcher, has written a book about Tagasaste. Tagasaste is a hardy, leguminous shrub. In temperate climates it can provide heavy yields of nutritious green fodder for grazing animals. Tagasaste fodder can be an important base for aquaculture. It provides a high-protein feedstock for fish food from worm farms and snail farms, and for freshwater crustacea. The shrub is being exploited in dryland Australia for high- protein fodder. Even when grown on poor coastal sands tagasaste (correctly fertilised) can produce high yields of edible dry matter containing 23% to 27% crude protein and only 18% to 24% indigestible crude fibre. Australian farmers now growing tagasaste are reporting these additional benefits: * Shade and shelter for livestock during climate stress. * Wind and water erosion control. * Increased soil fertility through nitrogen fixation. * Reductions in water tables causing salinity problems. * Habitat for native birds that eat pasture and crop pests. * Green firebreaks around homesteads and along boundary fences. * Winter nectar for bees. * Reduced internal parasite problems as shrub fodder is browsed above pasture that harbours dung-borne worm eggs. Many Australian farmers are now following this revolution as soil salinity and soil acidity problems make browse shrubs a most sensible way to go in improving landcare. For more information please visit the web page at: http://www.thehub.com.au/~agrovis/agrovis From pcorgbgo@bendigo.net.au Thu Jan 8 22:30:13 1998 Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 18:42:22 +1100 From: Australia Felix Reply-To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu Subject: Tagasaste [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] AUSTRALIA FELIX LandPlanning Consultants Project Management, Design & Planning Services & Products for Sustainable & Productive Land-Use since 1993 Re: Tagasaste Hello Everyone, I trust that this greets you all well! We have had some experience here with Tag. Last year we direct sowed with a Roden Direct Seeding Machine 175kms of Tag on one sheep property alone, and sourced the seed from: Kimseed Pty Ltd Division of Australian Revegetation Corp. Ltd 42 Sarich Court, Osborne Park WA 6017 Tel (Aus 09)(Internat +619) 4464377 Fax (Aus 09)(Internat +619) 4463444 Email: kimseed@afal.com.au Contact: Stephen Hill or Greg Hill Supply: Producers and exporters of all Australian tree, shrub and pasture seeds. Specialists in agroforestry, fodder, arid and saltland species and provenance collection. Machinery for seed collection, processing, treatment, planting, revegetation and tree harvesting. Consulting and contracting services The seed cost us around AU$36/kg scarified from this mob. We also for the money recieved special Tag inoculant which we applied as a slurry to the seed before putting it in the hopper. Preparation for the job included ripping with the Yeomans Keyline Plow to around 400mm. The farmer had already applied dolomite, gypsum and lime. Mounding on soils with suspect drainage will improve the situation no-end. Conversely, pitting the soil in low rainfall sands we have seen to work well. Another method to get Tag growing in a nursery situation with limited seed is to pour boiling water over the seed and let it sit in the water till the next day, and then sow into your seed raising mix in a tube or similar sized pots. Then just plant out at around 2.5m x 2m for fodder belts, or interplant between fruit/tender trees as a nurse tree. The loppings make great mulch for the adjacent tree being nursed. Tag has become a bit of an escape on better drained soils in Australia where the conditions suit its regeneration. Provided you have a good team of chooks or wild bunnies, kangaroos/wallabies or other rodents though it shouldn't be a problem. Even though the environmental weed brigade would have us believe that it is a problem weed, it is so palatable to all manner of both wild and domesticated herbivores that most of the very delicious seedlings are munched up as quick as they appear, therefore leaving most outbreaks very localised. If anyone needs a small source of seed from here in Australia please I have my own seed from the trees here if anyone wants some to trial. Drop us a line at the address below and we'll organise something. Please send any further queries to this news group or to us here at Australia Felix on pcorgbgo@bendigo.net.au or to: Australia Felix LandPlanning Consultants 14-16 Wood St, Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia, 3556 Ph. (+61)3 54 418977 Fax (+61)3 54 444483 Cheers Yours and Growing Darren J. Doherty Applied Diploma of Permaculture Design, Permaculture Institute (1995) Permaculture Design Certificate, Permaculture Institute (1993, 1995) Whole Farm Planning Certificate (Train the Trainer), University of Melbourne (1995) Principal Australia Felix LandPlanning Consultants Chairman of Directors GIFT (Investments) Pty. Ltd. President Box Ironbark Farm Forestry Network Inc. [Part 2, Text/HTML (charset: ISO-8859-1 "Latin 1") 136 lines] [Unable to print this part] From pcactivist@mindspring.com Fri Jan 9 23:33:41 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 23:18:34 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Bane To: jeffamy@otn.net Cc: london@sunsite.unc.edu Subject: tagasaste Hello Jeff, Your post was forwarded from Larry London. Forget growing tagasaste in Northern Montana until global warming is a lot further advanced than it is yet. It's hardy to about 24 degrees F. It does well in most of sub-temperate Australia and New Zealand, California, Florida, S. Texas, etc. The only perennial legumes besides the clovers that'll handle your climate are Caragana (Siberian pea shrub) and perhaps Robinia (black locust- doubtful, but worth a try in a sheltered location). Shepherdia genus (buffaloberry, silverberry) shrubs and Eleagnus genus (russian olive, autumn olive, goumi, cherry eleagnus, etc.) are useful nitrogen-fixing non-legumes (Actinorhizal fungal association); also look at sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) and alders for the same qualities. For further reference, see our Issue #34, Useful Plants, "Some Plants of Russian and Central Asia," by Joe Bullock. Joe lives on Orcas Island in WA. Good luck, Peter Bane The Permaculture Activist PO Box 1209 Black Mountain NC 28711