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Plant/Animal Production
Pasture production on the South West Slopes
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcome:
A student:
H2.1 describes the inputs, processes and interactions of plant production systems.
The work presented in the following section contributes towards achieving the following syllabus content areas:
Students learn about:
Constraints on plant production
- the constraints imposed by environmental factors
Managing plant production
- the interaction of genotype with environment and management
Experimental analysis and research in plant/animal systems
- the collection and analysis of data
Extract from Stage 6 Agriculture Syllabus NSW Board of Studies Amended 2009
In the example titled, Pasture Production on the Northern Tablelands, you worked through an activity that modelled the skills of summarising information in a table, drawing graphs and drawing conclusions. In this activity you will use climatic data and estimated growth rates for pastures to draw tables and graphs and form conclusions about pasture growth on the North West slopes of NSW. Before you complete this activity you should have studied the example Pasture Production on the Northern Tablelands.
South West Slopes
- Choose a site and gather the climatic data for a region.
Cootamundra is located within the South West Slopes. In order to obtain the climatic average data you should visit the Bureau of Meteorology (Climatic Averages)
web site and locate the average climatic data for Cootamundra. This data should include:
- mean daily maximum temperature
- mean daily minimum temperature
- mean rainfall
for each month of the year. - Draw a graph presenting the climatic average data.
Just as the graph was drawn for Glen Innes in Pasture producton on the Pasture Production on the Northern Tablelands., presenting the climatic average data, you should draw a graph presenting the climatic average data for Cootamundra..
- Draw a graph of estimated growth rate of pastures on the South West Slopes.
Below is presented a table showing the estimated pasture growth rate of specific pasture types for the South West Slopes. You should use this data to draw your own pasture growth curve as was presented in 3. for the Pasture Production on the Northern Tablelands.
Estimated pasture growth rate of specific pasture types (kg DM/ha/day) for the South West SlopesPasture species J F M A M J J A S O N D phalaris/subterranean clover 5 7 16 25 24 17 16 26 47 64 43 12 cocksfoot/subterranean clover 9 8 16 25 24 17 16 26 47 64 43 15 lucerne/subterranean clover 12 10 17 28 26 14 11 25 49 69 54 21 annual grass/subterranean clover 3 4 10 23 24 14 10 25 45 64 35 7 native grass without fertisliser 8 6 5 11 10 4 3 3 7 15 23 13 native grass with maintenance fertisliser 11 9 11 15 14 14 10 7 17 35 26 14 oats 0 0 0 0 14 29 25 28 43 64 48 0 - Compare the graph presenting the climatic average data
with the graph showing the estimated growth rate of pastures on
the South West Slopes..
You should compare the pasture growth graph for the South West Slopes with the climatic average data for Cootamundra and draw some conclusions as was done for the Northern Tablelands.
You should then draw up a table and record your climatic data in it.
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