Non-bloat pasture options

Advice on bloat-safe pasture selection, and how to modify pasture composition to reduce the risk of bloat in livestock.

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To achieve high growth rates in livestock, high quality pastures are required. However, most productive pastures are often the ones with a high bloat risk.

Legumes such as clovers, annual medics and lucerne pose a high risk of bloat and there have been cases of bloat reported on forage cereals like wheat and oats. There are few management options available.

Pasture composition to prevent bloat

Modifications can be made to pasture composition to manage bloat long-term.

Perennial grasses have a very low bloat risk, so it is important that they comprise at least 60-70% of the total dry matter of our pasture.

The addition of non-grass species helps provide improved digestibility and animal growth rates.

Condensed tannins

The levels of condensed tannins present in the plant is an important factor when choosing pasture species for bloat resistance.

Higher condensed tannins contain components which prevent the formation of foam in the rumen and reduces the likelihood of animals suffering from frothy bloat, even in situations where animals have access to bloat causing legumes.
When tannin levels are too high, it may reduce herbage intake and animal growth rates.
Monogastric (single-stomached) animal species like horses may also be negatively impacted by tannins.

Bloat-safe pasture options

Balancing productivity of pastures and animal performance, the following pasture legumes, herbs and grasses are non-bloating or bloat-safe to different degrees.

Species	Pasture type	Bloat risk	Description
Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus and Lotus spp.	Perennial	Low risk	tolerant of moderately acidic soils provides quality feed in winter and spring. has a high annual rainfall requirement of 650mm prone to overgrazing so needs to be rotationally managed seed production can be unpredictable.
Arrowleaf Clover Trifolium vesiculosum	Perennial	Low risk	high dry matter yield deep rooting ability multitude of varieties suited to different flowering windows readily grown and harvested with conventional equipment contains a high level of hard seed which ensures pasture longevity and protects against false breaks in autumn caution is still advised, as with most lush legume pastures.
Serradella Ornithopus compressus (Yellow) and O. sativus (Pink)	Annual and perennial	Very low risk	adapted to deep, well drained, sandy soils with low pH and low fertility levels will tolerate moderate to severe aluminium and manganese levels yellow serradella known to have a higher percentage of hard seed with pink or French serradella recognised as soft seeded generally sown together with yellow used for longevity and pink to provide short term productivity newer varieties of pink serradella have been bred to have a higher proportion of hard seed persistence benefit of serradella in general over typical sub-clover is that it will continue to grow and flower longer into spring and summer and is more responsive to rainfall possesses roughly half the levels of condensed tannins as birdsfoot trefoil does cause other animal health issues such as photosensitisation.
Chicory Chicorium intybus	Perennial and Bi-annual	Non-bloating	warm season herb with very high digestibility and with high animal growth rate potential perennial type is drought tolerant needs to be carefully managed to ensure longevity. more tolerant of acid soils and aluminium than lucerne, so it is a good replacement in harsh soil conditions. bi-annual type for short term forage cropping situations and will only persist for 12-18 months at most. is not a legume so it does not fix nitrogen is a good option as a companion species for lucerne stands or in shorter term perennial pastures is a poor component in hay as the leaf will go dark and mouldy when drying down silage is still an option reduces incidence of intestinal parasites and worms when compared to a control as chicory will usually be sown in a mix with other bloat causing pastures, caution is still warranted when seeding a mix.
Plantain Plantago lanceolata	Perennial	Medium bloat risk	grows year-round and is well suited to acid soils suited to areas with annual rainfall above 550mm offers high growth rates and palatability for stock while leaves are young and fresh decreases in palatability when more mature older varieties performed well in spring and summer newer varieties have been selected for increased winter growth contains tannins which may lead to reductions in bloat.

Other pasture species

There is a lack of scientific evidence to support other species being used as non-bloating pasture in Australia. Examples of these species which would require more research include:

berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum)
tropical legumes like sulla, desmanthus, desmodium and sainfoin
hard-seeded legume biserrulla.

More information

Read more about grazing strategies to prevent and manage bloat in livestock.

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