Oldman saltbush (Atriplex nummularia) is a broadly adapted Australian shrub that tolerates arid and saline conditions. Historically, farmers established plantations from ‘wild’ material. Improvement criteria were determined through whole-farm modelling; improving shrub energy values by 10% would increase profits by three times the increment associated with increasing biomass production by 10% or reducing establishment costs by 10%. A multidisciplinary team involving farmers, livestock scientists and agronomists, collected seed across Australia and assessed 60,000 individual shrubs across three locations. Preferences of sheep were utilised to identify accessions with higher energy. Fifteen elite shrubs were cloned and then tested in more broadly across southern Australia. This led to commercialisation of Anameka™ (a clonal cultivar) in 2015, just 9 years after the establishment of the collection. Whole-farm economic analyses suggests that Anameka™ can double the profitability of saltbush plantations on farms and reduce risk as the plants are resilient to drought. Adoption offers a range of additional ecosystem benefits. More than six million shrubs have now been planted by more than 300 farmers.
What were the critical steps that enabled AnamekaTM? The first was to identify opportunities or gaps within the farming systems in target growing areas. This involved systems modellers, economists, plant and livestock scientists. Provision of green feed in autumn was the biggest opportunity, and the energy value of leaves was the biggest limitation. The outcome of the modelling was then discussed with several farmers and consultants to achieve some understanding of potential scale, possible barriers to adoption and other benefits that may be achieved. In our case, the high opportunity cost associated with perennials on arable crop land dictated a focus on sandy/saline soils. With a clear understanding of the goal, a wide range of germplasm was assembled and rapidly screened in target environments. Near infrared spectroscopy was calibrated to allow inexpensive assessment of nutritional value in autumn of as many plants as possible. Other production traits we assessed included biomass (quick ranking method), plant form and recovery from grazing. Nutritional wisdom of sheep to rank preferences and identify plants with the highest energy. A smaller pool of candidates was then be tested more broadly on 15 farms (survival, preference and productivity) and a commercial nursery (ability to clone). The initial modelling, with field data, allowed us to quantify economic benefits to farmers and this has been a key selling point.