Sow What Mix ?

Do your home work!

Creating seed mixes

Discussion with Farmer – What to sow?

Read and understand marketing material

Switch Selling Mixes or Cultivars

Do your home work!

1. Clearly understand the terminologies for and what the expectations are for each type of ryegrass

Ryegrass Classes Other

terminology

Examples Life span summer dry

Life span summer moist

Perennial

Entophytes

Perennial ryegrass - Samson/ONE503+ years 6+ years Yes

Long rotation ryegrass Hybrid Ohau 3+ years 5+ years Yes

Short rotation ryegrass Hybrid, Italian Maverick Gold 2-3 years 3-4+ years Occasionally

Italian SR, Hybrid Crusader 1-3 years 3-4 years NO

Annual ryegrass Westerwolds Progrow 10 month 10 month No

2. Remember to be realistic!

• Many things influence persistence - perennials should last 10-20 years• Farmer management (Fertility, drainage, kill of weed grasses, pugging) Climate, Grass grub, stem weevil & porina often lead to a different result

Do your home work!3. Clearly understand where other pasture grasses best fit in the farming systems

4. Means you can be confident and professional

Species Fertility*

Soil types* Rainfall* Stock class Grazing Nitrogen

Perennial & Long Rotation Ryegrass

P 18-35 Wide range 700mm+ All Flexible Responsive

Hybrid, Italian & Annual

P 18-35 Wide range 700mm+ All Flexible Very Responsive

Tall Fescue

(Summer active)

P 20-35 Medium-Heavy 550mm+ Cattle (Sheep, Deer)

Intensive

rotation

Responsive

Cocksfoot P 14-20 Light-medium 600mm+ Cattle, ewes Flexible Autumn

Timothy P 18-35 Medium-heavy 850mm All Rotational Late spring

Prairie Grass P 25-45 Light-medium 650-800mm Cattle, Deer (Sheep)

Rotational Autumn &

Late winter

Grazing Brome P 16-25 Light-medium 650-800mm All Flexible Autumn

Pasture Brome P 16-25 Light-medium 700-850mm All Flexible Early Summer

Lucerne P 18-35

pH 6-6.5

Light-medium 650-800mm Sheep/deer

(Cattle)

Rotational

Silage/hay* Range for persistence and performance

Read and understand marketing material

3. When there are sweeping statements on cultivars read thoroughly to make sure enough information is provided to support claims

4. Read all graphs carefully and understand what is trying to be presented. Check to make sure this is supported by what is written in the article (Graph and text say the same thing)

5. Look at other companies presentation that may include the cultivar to develop a balanced picture

6. Use practical experience to balance marketing hype

1. All trials have limitations, these are mostly based around location of trials and management, which may simply be irrelevant to your clients, this includes animal performance trials.

2. The more trials you have the more reliable the trends and messages that can be taken from these trials.

Read and understand marketing materialReading New Zealand Plant Breeding & Research Association (NZPBRA) trial summaries.

Ball equals the average yield for the cultivar

Reliability bar or error bar

This tells you that if the trial was repeated the result would fall between the error bars 95% of the time. The more trials the shorter the error bars and more reliable the yield range is.

Cultivars with reliability bars that overlap are not statistically different and therefore NOT DIFFERENT

Read and understand marketing material

Reading New Zealand Plant Breeding & Research Association (NZPBRA) trial summaries.

Read and understand marketing material

Reading New Zealand Plant Breeding & Research Association (NZPBRA) trial summaries.

Other important points to note;

1. Not all marketing material will be up to date as printing dead lines and stocks of brochures means that summaries can be up dated before marketing material. The most up to date information on the summaries is found on the NZPBRA Website at www.nzpbra.org

2. There is a Canterbury summary a North Island Summary and a national summary that includes Canterbury, NI & Southland information

5. The regional summaries are the most powerful particularly when the region is relevant to your clients. The easiest summary to present in marketing has been the national summary.

3. A cultivar has to be tested 3 times in a region to make the regional summary

4. A cultivar only has to be tested 3 times nationally to make the national summary. One location has to be north of Taupo.

Discussion with Farmer – What to sow?

Ask Questions!

Farmers nearly always know the answers they want they just don’t ask themselves the right question.

1. Soil fertility – helps to discuss, high yielding cultivar vs general purpose, diploid vs tetraploids or whether to use other species

Climate & Soil

3. Rainfall – helps to discuss summer actives vs winter active grasses and helps also indicate what grass species would work in mix

2. Soil type – helps to discuss diploid vs tetraploids or whether to use other species

Discussion with Farmer – What to sow?

1. What's it going to be grazed by? – helps in discussing, if its finishing or for maintenance (SR), high yielding cultivar vs general purpose, diploid vs tetraploids or whether to use or include other species

Pasture use

3. What is the expectation of persistence – helps in discussing ryegrass type and helps also indicate what grass & herb species would work in mix

2. When is feed required? – helps in discussing ryegrass type and cultivar choice or whether to use other species

4. What level of fertiliser inputs are they prepared to use? – helps in discussing ryegrass type, high yielding cultivar vs general purpose, diploid vs tetraploids

5. Is there a paddock rotation you should be aware off? – helps in discussing ryegrass type, and use of other species

6. Is there a weed history or potential need for spraying – helps in discussing the use of herbs

Discussion with Farmer – What to sow?

2. What is the normal seed mix? – This gives a starting point, also often tells you a lot about who’s been supplying information and or seed in the past. Also gives a basis to provide improved advice or start switch selling products

Other Questions on Pasture use that are often of useful?

3. How much is normally sown/ha? – This gives a starting point to stick to when making a pasture mix, also gives a basis to provide improved advice, Tetraploid vs Diploid, different grass species

4. Is there a seed budget in mind? – This gives a ball park to stick to when making a pasture mix

1. How will the pasture be sown? – This gives an opportunity to provide advice on the sowing of different species within the pasture mix

Creating seed mixesOur aim has to be to create seed mixes that meet our clients expectations asoften and as reliably as possible.

Species 1000 seed wt (g) ryegrass =100

Average sowing rate in a mix (kg/ha)

Dominant Part of a mix

Ryegrasses (Diploids) 2.0 (100%) 18-20 8-14

Ryegrasses (Tetraploids) 3.9-4.0 (51-50%) 20-25 10-16

Tall Fescue 2.6 (78%) 20-25 10-16

Cocksfoot 0.9 (220%) 6-8 1-3

Timothy 0.5 (400%) 4-6 1-2

Bromes (Grazing, Prairie) 11.5 (17%) 30-35 15-20

Chicory 1.2 (166%) 3-5 1-2

Plantain 2 (100%) - 1-3

White clover 0.71 (282%) - 3-5

Red clover (Diploids) 1.9 (95%) 6-8 3-4

Red clover (Tetraploids) 3.4 (59%) 8-12 4-6

Creating seed mixes

1. For greatest consistency always work your grass content back to be around the equivalent of 18-20 kg/ha of diploid ryegrass.

Some rules of thumb

2. If persistence is required DO NOT PUT or limit the use off, Annuals, Italians or short rotation ryegrass in perennial mixes particularly in summer dry environments. The exception is in summer moist environments but limit use to 3kg diploid and 5-8kgs tetraploids

3. Always remember to work coated seed back to a bare sowing rate so you are always aware of how much seed you are actually using in your mix

4. Avoid mixing ryegrasses with flowering dates with greater than 2-3 weeks difference between them

Creating seed mixesPasture mixes are ecosystems which have rules of thumb that always come about based on soil fertility and environmental interactions

1. Pastures will always has a dominant species. All other species will conform to a order of ranking for the remaining space with in the pasture

Species Grass species

herbs White clover

weed

Stable ecosystem 1st order 2nd order 3rd order 4th order

Proportion of pasture 65% 23% 8% 4%

Transitional ecosystem 1st order 2nd order 2nd order 4th order

Proportion of pasture 65% 15.5% 15.5% 4%

2. All your understandings of management, fertility and soil types and climatic conditions are designed to influence the paddocks conditions to maintain the best balanced pasture (ecosystem) for your farming practice

Examples only

Switch Selling Mixes or Cultivars

1. When trying to encourage a client to change cultivar or pasture mix from something that they has been recommended by another source that you don’t agree with, always base any discussion on changing cultivar or pasture mix on facts.

2. If you can’t get the farmer to change all his mixes try and change some and or part of the mix

• Look at my mix vs. their • Change endophyte option• Just change one clover• Add Tonic

By doing this you obtain some ownership of the mix and gives you a basis to make more changes in the future

3. Take them to local demonstration or trials or excellent examples of your mixes elsewhere.

4. Call in out side help to try and influence there choice.