Persistence and productivity from his ryegrass varieties are at the top of the list for Brett Craig, who milks 220 cows on his dryland dairy operation in Victoria’s Western District.
The Swan Marsh farmer crops turnips and brassicas on 30 per cent of the property, with the rest of the land being sown to perennial pastures, which play a critical role in the operation.
“Pasture feeds the cows when the crops aren’t growing, and as our season is quite short, with grass only growing for six months from May to November, our varieties need to be high-yielding, provide high conversion to milk solids and show good persistence,” Brett explains.
After seeing Halo AR37 tetraploid perennial ryegrass from Stephen Pasture Seeds at some trial sites in 2014, Brett has been growing the variety ever since.