Issue 30 / Winter / August 2012

Hi #subname#

Welcome to the August edition of Specialty Seed's SeedData Newsletter.

In the months of June and July the weather gods brought varied conditions throughout New Zealand. August is normally our wettest month and this one has certainly started with a hiss and a roar rain wise where it seems no matter where you are, all soils are now well saturated. To date this month I have measured 180 mm's, which is nearly 1/3 of Canterbury's average rainfall.

While big rain events, like many have recently endured, can cause a lot of difficulty at the time, hopefully it has ensured a good start to the Spring.

This month we will update you with all the fodder beets currently on the market, supply you with a very useful barley growing guide that will be helpful for either silage or crop production and we will provide you with some interesting pasture persistence trial information.

Pasture Persistence
Fodder Beet Varieties

Pasture Persistence

I was surfing through the different seed companies trial results the other day (sad isn't it) and I found this trial on the Cropmark trial results site that I thought I would share it with you.

This perennial and hybrid ryegrass trial was run over three years over 33 different trial sites from Northland to Southland. It measured dry matter production and dry matter yields during Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring.

The thing that interested me the most wasn't the dry matter yields as such, but it was the drop off in production some of the cultivars suffered from year one until year three.

If my maths are correct the cultivars that had the lowest drop off in dry matter production from year 1 until year 3 are Matrix (5.2% drop), Nui (5.8% drop), Aberdart (5.8% drop) and AR1 Sterling (9.4% drop). I'll leave it up to you to check out the cultivars that had the biggest drop off, but as I say a very interesting trial.

For full trial results: Cropmark Seeds - Perennial Ryegrass Trials All NZ Trials Summary
Contact Link: Please click here to get ryegrass advice for your area from Specialty Seeds today.

Fodder Beet Varieties

Quite rightly in the seed market it doesn't take long before most companies jump onto the band wagon whenever a new market opens. Fodder beet has had real growth over the last 5 years when Seed Force Ltd did a great job in re introducing the advantages of fodder beet to New Zealand's farmers.

Since this time there has been quite an increase in cultivars available to you. Below is an information table showing all of the commercially available cultivars and their strengths and weaknesses.

The information supplied is for farmers planning to grow fodder beet for grazing in situ and it is necessary that this is precision planted. If you would like information on harvesting fodder beet please contact us.

For more information on individual cultivars please follow these links to see their respective information brochures:

SF Brigidier information brochure
SF Blaze information brochure
Kyros information brochure
Magnum information brochure
For more information on Feldherr, Monro, Rivage, or Spendide please contact Specialty Seeds

Download: Download the Specialty Seeds Fodder Beet Growing & Grazing Guide
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds if you have any other questions about Fodder Beet.

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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 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

Stephen Finch & David Percival
Specialty Seeds - New Zealand



This was another informative "SeedData Newsletter" - brought to you by Specialty Seeds NZ
Website: www.specseed.co.nz \| Email: mail@specseed.co.nz \| Phone: 0800 727 8873 \| Fax: 0800 365 6663