'Strickland' digit grass sown at Mike Dodd's, Buntine in September 2004. This is in a broad valley floor that is developing salinity. The trial site has good coverage of Blue bush and is probably only mildly saline. There is also some Tall Wheat grass, Rhodes grass and green panic surviving on this site. The medic sown in June 2004 has also done well and is now a dense stand. Photo taken 13 SEptember 2006

Jim Wedge sowed this very poor white sand to perennials in August 2005. Despite the drought conditions in 2006 it has established very well. Jim is now subdividing the paddock with one wire electric fences around a central watering hub. Picture 15 September 2006

Peter Smith of Gairdner near Bremer Bay sowed this paddock on 1 Dec 05. The reason it was so late was he had trouble killing the thick sub-clover pasture. There was plenty of sub-soil moisture but the surface was dry. Luckily a wet summer ensued and this excellent establishment resulted. It was a mixture of Gatton Panic, Fiencut Rhodes, Strickland Finger and Phalaris. A cover crop of oats was used to minimise erosion risk but it appears where the oats were too thick it outcompeted the perennials. Photo 4 April 06.

Jacup is between Jerramungup and Ravensthorpe. It can be pretty dry there. Not so in 2006. Colin Crane sowed this paddock to a mixture of perennials in addition to sorghum. Rhodes grass has done exceeedingly well, especially in lower lying areas such as this. We have a trial site in this paddock with a range of species represented. It will be interesting to see how they perform in this low rainfall sandplain environment. Photo 22 May 06.

This is the Mingenew Perennial Pasture Q&Q trial site at the Gillam's Irwin House property. The site was sown in spring 2004 and has been regularly monitored since winter 2005. Rhodes and Green/Gatton Panic are the standout performers so far. To illustrate this, they both produced between 1500 and 2000 kg/ha of dry matter by mid-February following good summer rains whereas all other species were below 1000 kg/ha. The soil is a very poor white sand over a gravel base. Photo 11 April 2006.

David Cook (left) of Dandaragan runs a large "organic" beef enterprise, turning off finished grass-fed cattle year round. He is keen on perennials and has established a number of paddocks over the last few years. He must use non-chemical weed control at establishment so he resorts to scarifying the paddock and then broadcasting the seed and rolling it in. He has had good success and this prominent roadside paddock has been the talk of Dandy all summer! It was established in 2004 and overcame a slow start to really power away. It has a good stand of blue lupins supplying nitrogen to the grasses. Photo 10 May 2006.

Green panic at Rowan Ford's on 5 May 2006. This north eastern wheat belt paddock was sown in the spring of 2004 but only a hand full of plants germinated that year due to the drougth. There has been a very good germination of mostly green panic from rain this summer.

Geoff Moore's perennial grass breeding site at Wellstead. 20 April 2006

Perennial grass breeding trial run by Geoff Moore at the Badgingarra Research Station. A range of green panics and some digit grass are showing promise. Photo 18 April 2006

'Feather top' Rhodes grass growing with Salt bush and tagasaste in a paddock at Don Nairns east of Binnu. The 'Feather top' Rhodes has not been sown but appears to have spread from perhaps just one plant. This paddocks is deep yellow sand on a crest and was planted to normal tag, weeping tag and salt bush in 2004. Photo 13 April 2006