Harvesting, processing, and marketing Australian native grass seeds

Abstract

A number of useful Australian native grasses have been identified for various situations: for turf, amenity, and ornamental purposes; for revegetation of mine spoil, roadsides, and degraded land; and as forages. Their commercialisation depends on developing appropriate seed‐harvesting and processing technology, thereby ensuring that seed is produced in a form that can be sown satisfactorily and gives reliable establishment. While conventional header harvesters can be used with some species (e.g.,Astrebla lappacea), beater and (especially) brush harvesters have been more successful with many others, particularly grasses with light, difficult‐to‐handle, chaffy seeds. After harvest, chaffy seeds can be processed to make their subsequent handling and sowing easier. Choice of processing method depends on the structural complexity of the dispersal units and on the particular chaffy appendages involved. Awns and sterile spikelets are comparatively easy to remove, with surface hairs and bristles the most difficult.

Market acceptance, however, ultimately depends on the value that consumers place on convenience and ease of handling versus any costs added through processing.