Bade Ness Rural conducted their Ryegrass Trials at their Killarney site on Tuesday October 10th.
Exhibitors from Gallagher, Westpac Bank, Rapid Spray, FeedTech – auto feeders and Rods Livestock Nutrition were on hand to inform on their products.
A good display of Ryegrasses – Annual, Italian, Perennial, diploid and tetraploid.
The one thing about a trial site by Bade Ness is there are no restrictions on seed supplier. The varieties sown were the most popular varieties sold in store but all grown while subjected to the same weather conditions, fertiliser and sprays.
What is the difference between tetraploid and diploid ryegrass?
A tetraploid plant has four sets of chromosomes per cell (a diploid has two sets), which simply means tetraploid ryegrasses are more palatable for livestock. Animals prefer tetraploids over diploids if they have a choice and often graze tetraploid ryegrass more quickly and evenly. Typically, the leaf is finer on a tetraploid ryegrass.
There are so many questions to ask before choosing a new pasture seed.
What’s my soil type?
Is my paddock sloping or flat?
Does it drain well or get waterlogged?
Do I need to combat erosion?
What type of stock am I feeding – given that sheep and cattle feed at different pasture heights?
Do I need a short-term flush of feed or do I want the pasture to persist for longer and what are the costs – seed plus machinery costs, fuel, sprays, fertiliser, time?
We have been forecast an El Nino – how will that potentially affect the crop?
Its so complicated that we rely on the expertise of our agronomists to point us in the best direction.
The one observation that we can all see at the trial sites are the seeds that are performing best at that site. Killarney is a particularly good soil site with no particular issues – the site is slightly sloping downhill to the north and we have had regular rainfall over the course of the trial.
The site was sprayed with Crucial (2 L/Ha) to inhibit weed seed set and Nail (30mL/Ha) for control of Marshmallow and other broadleaf weeds, on April 27 prior to sowing. Diploids were sown at a rate of 25kg/Ha and the Tetraploids having a smaller seed were planted at 30 kg/Ha.
Fertiliser of DAP 100kg/Ha was spread immediately after sowing and topped up with Urea 120kg/Ha on September 20th.
Metarex slug and snail bait was applied at 4kg/Ha and Tramat 4L/Ha selective herbicide on April 30th.
MCPA 1 L/Ha and Flume 20g/Ha - a water dispersible granule formulation for the post-emergence and salvage control of certain broadleaf weeds, was applied May 20th.
The Annual and Italian ryegrasses were grazed 4 weeks before the trial and the Perennial ryegrasses were grazed 5 weeks before the trial.
George Serra agronomist from Bade Ness Rural discussed some of the results with me.
“The ‘Hustle AR1’ performed really well in the trial and has the AR1 endophyte which is the safest for grazing stock – minimising the risk of ryegrass staggers – and it’s the first of the Seed Force varieties that has shown persistence. Mr Serra was quick to point out the AR37 varieties are still good as far as ryegrass staggers but the AR1 is still the safest option.”
“DLF Seeds has just done some research on the Vic Ryegrass Vs Base AR37 – which is their benchmark grass for the last few years – average of $606 per ha per year more profit from the Base AR37 than the Vic Ryegrass. Its pretty clear that you can get so much more by improving your pastures with better seed selection while still getting persistence and better endophyte results for your stock. They have data for the last three to four years but that is ongoing – so there will be more data to gain.”
It seems that most of the clientele that visited were interested in the results of the new varieties and to see how their existing pastures are comparing. Heading dates were also of interest with many varieties trialled being later heading – as that is what suits our area best and gives quality feed for longer.
“We (at Bade Ness Rural) have tried not to align ourselves with one seed company, so that we can trial the best of the seeds on offer – we are constantly in contact with our seed reps and working to put their new varieties in the trial plot, to test them against the known performers and to see them for ourselves. It is much easier to recommend a seed variety to clients when you have seen how it performs in the trial.”
DLF Seeds Representative Michael Grant was pleased but not surprised at how the ‘Vast AR 37 tetraploid performed in the trial.
“It’s extremely late heading - for those people who know ryegrasses – it’s plus 36 days – so it stands out as the latest heading perennial ryegrass on the market. It will be released fully next year – there was some seed released last year but we will have full release next year – it’s a tetraploid, ultra-late – it has high quality right through the winter, spring and summer, being so late (heading) – so ideally its probably best suited to the higher rainfall areas like around Warrnambool, on a dairy farm or under irrigation as we get out further.”
“As for persistence the Vast AR 37 has been trialled at our Ballarat Research Farm for a number of years now and it’s sitting pretty well as far as persistence goes and that’s because of the AR 37 – which gives it protection form insects both above and below ground – so it’s got that good barrier to help it persist.”
Mr Grant also pointed out that the Vast AR 37 is stagger free in cattle and while it may still affect the sheep mildly. Grazing tends to be very even across the paddocks.
As far as appearance the Vast AR 37 is very finely leafed, green all the way to the bottom of the plant, very dense and extremely soft – with no real stalkiness at all. It makes sense then, that this variety would be very palatable to stock. The late heading is a real bonus with this variety expected to remain at this quality well into summer.
For more information regarding the trial information – contact Bade Ness Rural, Warrnambool.
