Rate My Professor Jonathan Mclachlan

McLachlan's research centers on optimizing the feedbase of temperate and tropical grazing systems, particularly legume establishment, persistence, and performance in mixed swards. Key interests encompass pasture agronomy and nutrition, pasture legumes, sward dynamics, pasture weeds, plant-soil interactions, and root architecture and morphology. He addresses challenges like phosphorus deficiency in nutrient-poor soils through studies on root traits, alternative fertilizer strategies such as subsurface placement and banding, and critical phosphorus requirements for species including Desmanthus genotypes and tropical legumes. Notable publications include 'Root morphology and phosphorus requirements of 12 tropical pasture species grown in a controlled environment' (2025), 'Starter phosphorus reduces the critical external phosphorus requirements of two tropical pasture legumes' (2024), 'Preferential Phosphorus Placement Improves the Productivity and Competitiveness of Tropical Pasture Legumes' (2024), 'Differences in phosphorus acquisition and critical phosphorus requirements among nine Desmanthus spp. genotypes' (2021), and 'Intrinsic root morphology determines the phosphorus acquisition efficiency of five annual pasture legumes irrespective of mycorrhizal colonisation' (2020). McLachlan teaches undergraduate courses including AGSY101 Sustainable Agricultural Systems I, AGRO200 Agricultural Plants: Adaptation and Physiology, AGSY300 Grazing Systems, and AGSY410 Problem Solving in Farm Systems, promoting holistic insights into agricultural ecology, pasture adaptation, and systems thinking. Additionally, he serves as Director and Editor of Pastures and Grazing NSW.