Small tree or shrub, with flowers and immature pods.
Scientific name
Small tree or shrub, with flowers and immature pods.
Chamaecytisus palmensis
Chamaecytisus proliferous
Cystisus proliferous
Strengths
- Evergreen fodder shrub for deep sands.
- High stocking rates and meat production.
- Autumn feed for maintenance.
- Winter spring feed for animal production.
- Prevents wind erosion.
Limitations
- Requires mechanical cutting for sheep (and cattle depending on grazing management).
- Cannot be set-stocked by sheep.
- Permanent shrub that limits cropping when sown in plantations.
Plant description
Plant:
A tall (up to 5 m) perennial legume shrub with very deep root system (at least 10 m).
Stems:
Can grow into a tree form if unmanaged, but is managed for a low shrub with multiple stem branching from just above the soil surface.
Leaves:
Multiple narrow leaflets (5 to 30 mm) long, emerging from a common petiole.
Flowers:
Small white pea flowers.
Row plantings pruned to enable grazing by sheep in Western Australia.
Pods:
Narrow pods with about 10 seeds per pod.
Seeds:
Hard seeded.
Pasture type and use
An evergreen legume fodder shrub used for year round grazing with cattle or autumn feed for sheep and cattle.
Where it grows
Rainfall
> 250 mm.
Soils
Deep (> 1 m), well drained sands.
Temperature
Young leaves are burnt by frost, but plants are adapted to a wide range of temperatures. Growth rates slow in winter due to cool temperatures.
Establishment
Companion species
Annual pastures in inter-row.
Coppiced growth.
Sowing/planting rates as single species
Sown as plantations at 8 to 10 m spacing between rows. When planted as seedlings space plants 2 to 3 m apart within rows.
Sowing/planting rates in mixtures
‘Alley farming’ is where the inter row spacing is more than 15 m.
Sowing time
Sown in winter May to August.
Inoculation
Tagasaste special inoculum thought tagasaste is considered ‘promiscuous’ for rhizobium.
Fertiliser
25 kg/km of row of a Super:Potash mix (higher rates can kill seedlings).
Management
Maintenance fertliser
200 kg/ha/year superphosphate (9% P) for optimum animal production.
Grazing/cutting
Seedlings are lightly grazed or cut in the first autumn to promote branching (remove no more than 1/3 of the leaf).
With sheep tagasaste is grazed at high stocking rates (e.g. 100 DSE/ha) for a maximum of 6 weeks in autumn to replace supplementary feeding. If only grazed once a year the tagasaste will require mechanical cutting (0.5 to 1.0 m height) in autumn. Tagasaste can not be set stocked with sheep.
Tagasaste can be set stocked or rotationally grazed with cattle at any time of the year. If the grazing pressure is adequate the tagasaste will not need mechanical cutting.
Row plantings for grazing in Western Australia.
Seed production
Small number of professional seed producers (hand picking or vacuum harvesting)
Ability to spread
Limited, but occasionally seedlings will strike in the absence of grazing.
Weed potential
Low, though can establish in bushland
Major pests
Most insect pest in the seedling stage (first 9 months), occasional grass hopper damage in mature plants.
Rabbits will kill seedlings.
Major diseases
None
Susceptible to root and collar rots in humid subtropics.
Herbicide susceptibility
Limited knowledge or requirement in paddocks
Animal production
Feeding value
Very high feed quality in winter and spring, but maintenance only in autumn. Crude Protein levels are at least 14% in autumn but animals respond to protein supplements at this time. In autumn high phenolic levels can inhibit rumen function and cause protein shortages.
Palatability
Good during winter and spring, but declines over summer and autumn. Leaves on stems that have flowered in spring will become unpalatable in the following summer (and the bark of those stems becomes palatable). Mechanical cutting / hard grazing in the first half of the year prevents flowering in the second half of the year.
Production potential
Has increased carrying capacity from 2 DSE/ha to 8 DSE/ha on infertile sands in WA.
Livestock disorders/toxicity
‘Tagasaste staggers’ can occur in winter and spring but animals recover quickly (< 30 minutes) and there is no permanent damage. Rare nervous problems with new born calves - a condition which is not yet understood.
Pregnancy toxaemia in lactating ewes and calves in autumn due to tagasaste only supplying maintenance quality feed prior to the break of season.
Cultivars
Common tagasaste, Weeping tagasaste (seedlings only)
Author and date
Tim Wiley
May 2009
