Getting the most from your pastures requires sowing the best species for your operation and ensuring good grazing and agronomy management post sowing.
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Also weather is becoming ever more of a challenge to successful pasture management and selection.
They were the main messages to come from the third pasture field day held by Hunter Local Land Services at their pasture demonstration site on the Ropa family’s Hunter River irrigation property near Singleton.
The other message to come from the site was the success of pasture mixes that include fescue, cocksfoot and Prairie Grass thanks to the development of new improved varieties.
The 250 individual pasture plots that included grasses, legumes, herbs, lucerne and cereals and mixes of all these species were sown in early April and received 400mm of water from irrigation and rainfall. They had been grazed four times and silage had also been produced. After each grazing 40kg/hectare of nitrogen and 100kg/ha of urea had been applied.
Each plot had been evaluated and agronomist Kyle Ropa said this had shown where each plot provided the best feed window.
Ryegrass ,once a very popular pasture particular in the lower Hunter for dairyfarmers, was now struggling to achieve the same production due to hotter and drier weather especially for perennial varieties which now last only two years.
But it was still considered one of the best and cheapest sources of winter feed. Speakers at the field day spoke about the rise in popularity of fescue as new varieties are more palatable.
AusWest Seeds, Aaron Kemp said new varieties of soft leaf tall fesuce were more palatable and grew in summer but he advised to not let them get too high before grazing.
He also spoke about the advantages of Cocksfoot saying beef cattle in the New England region have performed better on that grass than rye.
“Another pasture gaining in popularity is Prairie Grass which was once only considered fit for wether feed on ridge country but is now used to finish cattle for the domestic market,” he said.
Mr Ropa said Prairie Grass worked well when oversown into old lucerne stands that are still good enough to keep.
“You can get really top quality hay from this mixture and the hay is horse safe,” he said.
“But Prairie Grass doesn’t like wet feet and is not as tolerant of the cold as ryegrass.”
At the site clovers were able to hold their quality proving yet again their importance in pastures mixes on both dairy and beef properties.
But for best results don’t let them get smothered for light and moisture by other grasses and legumes.