Overview of Pasture and Forage Crop Diseases in Australia

In this chapter, the authors attempt to create a perspective of the development and future of Australian pasture pathology based on historical and likely trends and constraints. Most of the new genotypes used as forage species in today's pastures were derived from forest margins and woodlands in Eurasia and Africa, and from tropical South America. In Australia, pasture research funding is largely from the public purse, with an increasing level of industry contribution. Broadly, Australia's pasture systems can be usefully categorized as extensive or intensive, according to their management. Disease management has concentrated on the incorporation of resistance in new cultivars, manipulation of foliar diseases by grazing, the cleaning up of seed stocks, and the occasional use of pesticides. In particular, progress has been most rapid for acute diseases, whose importance to the productivity and persistence of the pasture species could be more readily assessed, even if only on a relatively subjective basis.