Abstract

Soil water storage in forage systems is dependent not only on grazing and environmental factors, but also on the water use efficiency and other traits of the forage. Annual and perennial forages have varying impacts on soil water recharge and depletion dependent on litter, rooting, canopy, and other traits which impact soil water infiltration and evapotranspiration. Those traits were used to examine changes in seasonal soil water storage up to 1.4 metres below ground surface over a four-year drought period, 2020 to 2023. Using a grazed forage system with two perennial and two annual cover types, grasses and cereals—particularly bromegrasses—were found to be the largest contributing vegetation to soil water decline over the study period. The dense rooting and lack of soil insulation in paddocks dominated by meadow bromegrass exacerbated drought conditions most significantly of the forage systems studied, despite their low yields when compared to a treatment containing hybrid bromegrass.

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