|
|
|
Issue 19 / Winter / August 2011
Hi #subname#
Welcome to the August edition of Specialty Seed's SeedData Newsletter.
The snow has hit Canterbury hard again, but this time it appears nearly everyone throughout New Zealand has received a little of the white stuff to some degree!
August is officially the last month of Winter and so hopefully this is the last serious cold snap we will receive this year.
Personally, I'm hoping that the sunshine replaces these dark clouds, as I am pretty sure all of the rugby fields around New Zealand need some drying time,
so that we all get to enjoy some fantastic running rugby with the first game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup only being 23 days away! Bring it on !
Again, many thanks to all the people who have taken time to contact us after receiving our SeedData newsletters, your feedback is very much appreciated, as it helps us fine tune our newsletters to best suit your needs.
In this edition we will preview:
Controlling Californian Thistle (Cirsium arvense).
One of the most common and difficult to control weeds in New Zealand is the, Californian Thistle. I have been selling chemicals to control this weed for all my working life and therefore get frustrated when I still see them being a major and wide spread problem on my travels.
I read with great interest a recent article published in "Agresearch Now" on research that has been conducted on the control of Californian thistles using mowing and in particular mowing them in the rain.
Since 1991 work has been done on controlling Californian thistles by a variety of institutions so to see this work come to the stage where firm recommendations can be given to farmers is pleasing indeed.
I contacted research team leader Dr Graeme Bourdot who was very happy to provide the link below that better explains the process:
AgResearch Website Link: Click here to go to the AgResearch website page.
Download Link: Click here to download our Identifying Pasture Weeds brochure.
Contact Link: For any questions or enquiries please don't hesitate to contact us.
Back to top
Fodder Beet Update
This season has generally been a good one for fodder beet crops throughout New Zealand. I'm sure the good growing conditions during our summer had a lot to do with it, however I also think many fodder beet growers are getting a lot better at growing the crop. I believe whenever a new crop comes onto the market it can take up to three years for growers to fully understand how to grow them.
This season the following cultivars will be available:
At this stage there are reasonable stocks of all the fodder beets except for Monro and Rivage. These cultivars are imported to order only.
Downloads Link: Click here to go to download the Fodder Beet Growing & Grazing Guide.
Website Link: Click here to go to the Specialty Seed's Fodder Beet website page .
Contact Link: For more information or pricing on Fodder Beet please contact us.
Back to top
New Perennial Ryegrass
High sugar grasses (HSG's) from Germinal Seeds have created an enormous amount of interest since their release onto the New Zealand market.
The challenge for Germinal Seeds was to get their appointed plant breeders (IGER) to produce a persistant perennial ryegrass that had higher levels of milk and liveweight gain with less nitrogen waste.
The first off these HSG's to be released onto the New Zealand market was AberDart and judging by the positive feedback we have had from our clients it is performing well for you. The latest generation HSG to be released is AberMagic.
-
AberMagic is a late flowering (+15 days) diploid perennial ryegrass available in either AR1 or Low endophyte, with reasonably good stocks available this Spring. AberMagic has improved winter production and disease resistance.
Another interesting feature of AberMagic, and AberDart for that matter, is its persistence. We are sure you will be hearing a lot more about AberMagic and for more in depth information please follow the link below for more information on Abermagic.
If you are interested in High Sugar Grasses performance please click on the following link to go to the Germinal Seed's
Abermagic HSG website page.
Agricom and DLF Seeds are set to release two new ryegrasses onto the New Zealand market. Both of these grasses are long term types but are not classed as true perennial ryegrasses and like many other examples on today's market are technically referred to as Long Rotation perennial ryegrasses.
-
Prospect from Agricom is the most perennial (96-98% perennial) and like some other very good perennial ryegrasses has some north-west Spain genetics in its breeding.
A fine leaved, diploid perennial with a flowering date of +12 days. Prospect has performed very well in trials and shows strong year round performance. When released, this coming Autumn, Prospect will be available in AR37 endophyte.
For more information please click here to download a Prospect AR37 Long Rotation Ryegrass product brochure.
-
Jeta was locally bred and is quick to establish, with a very high yield potential, particularly performing well into the Summer with excellent disease resistance.
Jeta is a tetraploid ryegrass with a +7 day flowering date, there is a limited amount available for sale now with bigger stocks coming on stream post harvest 2012.
Jeta is DLF's first long rotation ryegrass containing an AR1 endophyte.
For more information please click here to download a Jeta AR1 Long Rotation Ryegrass product brochure.
Contact Link: For more information on either Abermagic, Jeta or Prospect please contact us.
Back to top
New Seed Treatments
Recently there have been some changes to the range of seed treatments available on the market.
PGG Wrightsons have withdrawn Ultrastrike Grass from the market and have made changes to the Superstrike Grass formulation.
Superstrike Grass now has the same level of protection that Ultrastrike Grass used to offer and much improved levels of protection when compared to the old Superstrike Grass formulation.
This means the new formulation Superstrike Grass has high levels of protection against Argentine stem weevils, black beetle and grass grub as well as well as fungicide protection from the "Damping off" diseases Fusarium and Pythium.
The new Superstrike Grass is significantly cheaper than the now discontinued Ultrastrike Grass. The other Ultrastrike product "Ultrastrike Brassica" remains unchanged.
Agriseeds NZ have also announced changes to their AgriCOTE Seed Treatments. Formally AgriCOTE grass offered protection from Argentine stem weevil, black beetle as well as the two above mentioned "Damping Off" diseases, now the label includes grass grub larvae as well.
The new formulation has significantly improved the withholding period which is now, 21 days when undersowing into existing pasture and 42 days for new pasture sow downs.
AgriCOTE oversow coating has been completely removed from their range.
We have just updated the Specialty Seed's Seed Treatments page with all of the relevent information for any seed that you are requiring treatment for, so please have a look and if you have any questions please dont hesitate to contact us.
Website Link: For the lastest information on pasture seed treatments please click here.
Contact Link: For any questions on these new products please contact us.
Back to top
As always, we hope this issue has been of some value to you. If you have a comment on this newsletter or anything on our website, please feel free to give us a call on our Freephone: 0800 727 8873, send us an email at: mail@specseed.co.nz.
Kind Regards
Stephen Finch & David Percival
Specialty Seeds - New Zealand
|
|
|
