Tonic
Tonic plantain is a valuable year-round grazing herb, providing strong cool season growth, key minerals as well as excellent dry matter production, particularly in drier, less fertile conditions. It is adaptable to a wide range of environments and soil conditions with a deep root system for added drought tolerance.
Tonic plantain is highly palatable and proves ideal for sheep, beef and dairy farmers in improving overall livestock production and performance.
Sowing rates:
- 8-10kg/ha as a pure stand
- 2-3 kg/ha in a perennial pasture mix
- 4-5 kg/ha with chicory and clover as a specialist crop
- 2-3 kg/ha in a lucerne stand
- 6-8 kg/ha with 1-2 kg/ha of forage brassica as a subsequent perennial stand
I am impressed with the persistence. After it has been dry there is still good plant populations. I don’t know what the stuff lives on. It is also still green after very heavy frosts. I have eaten the plantain down to the dirt and it comes back every time. What we see today was down to the dirt 6 weeks ago with the 430 lambs, we have had a hard autumn and little winter rain since I took the lambs off and it will be ready to graze again in 3 weeks’ time. It’s great for animal health. Wiener lambs don’t scour and I don’t have worm problems and the lambs fatten more evenly, more so than other pastures.
- Name: John Lyttle
- Location: Tirrannaville, NSW
It is great for weaning lambs onto. I have sent a lot of lambs over the hooks off this paddock.
- Name: Dustin Kemp
- Location: Cowaribin, NSW
After fattening weathers and running cows and calves it has been running 2500 xb lambs and 300 merino lambs, 150 * 50 kg lambs already sold and another 260 almost ready, the heavy lambs have been gaining 2 kg a week.
- Name: Andrew Fittler
- Location: Armidale, NSW
Heavy lambs in Tonic doing up to 2kg per week at 22.5 DSE
- Name: Andrew Fittler
- Location: Armidale, NSW
Tonic Plantain filling the Autumn feed gap by utilising out of season rain or "false starts" North of Coleraine at Konongwootong. It has lifted the farms carrying capacity by producing high quality feed for young stock when needed most.
- Name: Josh Brown
- Location: Coleraine , VIC
Tonic, sub, white and Crimson clover sown in September 2016 providing quality autumn feed to finish lambs. Currently stocked at 25 lambs per Ha. Holding up well thus far, with a paddock available for back up.
- Name: Adrian Keith
- Location: Taralga, NSW
9 month old Tonic Plantain used in an Angus Weaner backgrounding system to clean up annual grasses pre perennial pasture
- Name: Mark Palmer - SPS
- Location: Highlands, VIC
Roger Handerson, Ian Snowball and Ross Smart from New Zealand visited the AusWest Seeds site at AgQuip to tell us how much they like growing Tonic Plantain back home.
- Name: Kate Byrne
- Location: AgQuip, NSW
Heavy lambs in Tonic doing up to 2kg / week @ 22.5 DSE
- Name: Andrew Fittler
- Location: Armidale, NSW
Great example of Tonic’s ability for seedling recruitment. The stand was getting a little thin, letting it go to seed as thickened it up nicely.
- Name: Mark - SPS
- Location: Mudgegonga , VIC
Second year stand of Hummer Tall Fescue mixed with Tonic Plantain and Mainstay White Clover at Mudgegonga Victoria. Used to grow out stud Angus bulls prior to be sold.
- Name: Mark SPS HQ
- Location: Mudgegonga. Victorian North East highcountry. , VIC
Dustin sowed a mixed pasture which contained Flecha tall fescue, Arrowtas arrowleaf clover,Viper Balansa clover, Riverina and Dalkeith subclovers, lucerne and Tonic plantain. There was "green feed all year round. Plantain and lucerne in summer and clovers and Flecha tall fescue in winter". I "always have somewhere to finish lambs. I don't need to go buy grain to finish them."
- Name: Dustin Kemp
- Location: Warroo, NSW