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Italian ryegrass - integral to high performance for northern Victoria dairy
With the rising cost of water impacting irrigated dairy's profitability in northern Victoria, farmers are now looking to sow higher yielding high-quality pasture species which typically use less water. The Heap family have turned to new generation Italian ryegrass varieties such as Knight, Thumpa and Asset, to make the most of their limited water resources in tough times, producing more feed in a shorter planting window.
Today some of the team spent the day sowing trials at the ANFD site at Borenore near Orange NSW. Trials including Cocksfoot, forage oats, dual-purpose oats and other forage cereals were sown.
Name: Kate - AusWest Seeds
Location: Borenore
#behindtheseeds
Forage crops
28 March 2019
Fueling the Yarringtons
BMR Fuel forage sorghum has given the Yarrington family of Dolly's Flat a valuable feed wedge. So far the crop has yielded 1 cut of silage and is on its second grazing. BMR Fuel allows Rod and Natasha to grow a bulk of feed while cleaning up problem paddocks.
Name: Aaron - AusWest Seeds
Location: Wingham
#behindtheseeds
28 March 2019
BMR Fuel - filling a gap
Bobin Dairy farmer Col Hurrel has been impressed by the ability of BMR Fuel to fill a feed gap. Despite getting away from them on the first feed they have managed to get two grazings off it from the Christmas down crop.
Name: Aaron - AusWest Seeds
Location: Bobin
#behindtheseeds
Fescue
25 March 2019
Dry sowing seed Swan Hill
We are drysowing Hummer tall fescue in Swan Hill. Into ground that can be flood irrigated.
Name: Hamish, AusWest & Stephen Pasture Seeds
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Chicory
25 March 2019
Choice chicory vs. grass laneway
This Choice chicory in Ballarat, has had 15 mm of rain for the last 2.5 months.
Name: Hamish, AusWest & Stephen Pasture Seeds
Location: Leigh Creek
#behindtheseeds
19 March 2019
Peter Soutter
We cut 57 rolls of hay off just 7 acres. I'm really pleased with the Mach 1. It has re-grown again, nice and leafy after being cut, I've fertilised it and I'm hoping to get another cut. Next year I'll plant three times as much Mach 1.
Herb based systems - Choice chicory & Tonic plantain
Grazing herbs are unique species of pasture which offer many benefits for grazing systems. Chicory and plantain's stand out features include their high feed quality and low risk of animal health issues. Thirty kilometres west of Forbes, NSW, Dustin Kemp, manages a farm where Choice chicory and Tonic plantain have been successfully used as part of the farming system. The farm has an average annual rainfall of 500mm which is supplemented with flood irrigation. Herbs have been incorporated into the system to provide high quality feed for lambs and to help fill the green feed gap throughout the year.
SPS News
12 March 2019
Fast establishing autumn forages
Pastures across the country have recently been hit by long hot dry spells. Now is the time to make decisions about whether to grow feed for the winter or buy it in. These decisions will not only affect the autumn and winter at hand, the seed you plant this autumn will also affect the quality and amount of feed grown in the spring. There are many options including forage oats, annual ryegrass, Italian ryegrass and forage rape and this article aims to help guide you into the right forage for your farming system.
SPS News
Fescue
12 March 2019
12 tips for sowing & managing tall fescue
Tall fescues are making a resurgence in popularity as newly released cultivars make their way into the market. These new varieties offer softer, more palatable leaves and higher winter activity or summer dormancy than traditional varieties. Before sowing it is important to check that you have got everything right to ensure a successful result. Check off our list for getting the most out of your tall fescue pasture.
This Choice chicory was planted near Exeter on 12 September 2018. The plot was cut to 10cm high on the 14th of January and by the 1st of February it had grown back to 30cm high, with little rainfall. Chicory can produce large quantities of drymatter in hot dry conditions.
Name: Greg - AusWest Seeds
Location: Exeter
#behindtheseeds
Grass
Italian
Ryegrass
7 March 2019
John Underwood
The growth from Thumpa has been phenomenal. It had still not gone to head by mid-November, and the cattle clearly found it highly palatable. Thumpa has one of the best germination rates I've seen, and that, along with its growth rate, palatability for stock, and yield for both grazing and silage makes it pretty impressive.
We've seen a number of benefits already. It's definitely improved our livestock nutrition. The stock always look healthy and they've gained good weight. It's also got great palatability, and the vigorous growth has been incredible. I couldn't get over how much it just kept growing, even through the colder months. We had a little bit of capeweed, and a few red legged earth mites, but they didn't seem to stop the ryegrass at all.
Successfully sowing a new pasture can be a challenge. Variety selection is an important aspect to consider, when neglected it can lead to poor establishment, and pastures that fail to reach expectation in terms of production, quality and longevity. Using a pre-blended pasture blend/mix, designed for your local area, can mitigate some of this risk.In Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania we offer the SPS Signature Range pasture blends. For the northern states of Queensland and New South Wales we offer the MAXImiser? range of Pasture Mixes.
In the cereal and broadacre market we are often inundated with new options each season as varieties are bred for improved disease resistance, and to better suit different geographical areas and lengths of season. With so much choice we have profiled our ?top 5 season picks? of these new release varieties.
SPS News
