Issue 51 / Autumn / May 2014

Hi #subname#

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

Canterbury has had an exceptional amount of rainfall over the last two months. Record falls have left farms very, very wet under foot but its not just Canterbury farmers that are saying enough is enough.

In this issue we talk about how to best avoid winter pugging, give a refresher on winter green feed grazing management and a reminder that lucerne spraying season isn't far away.

• How to avoid winter pugging
• Feed management of winter brassicas
• Winter weed control in established lucerne

How to avoid winter pugging

This winter season could potentially be a difficult one for our clients in terms of avoiding the effects of winter pugging.

Many pastures I've seen locally are already showing signs of pugging, which is very early in the season. Many North Island pastures were dry and open for a long period. These areas that have now suffered from a large quantity of wet weather could mean that they are in store for higher than the average winter pugging issues.

Sometimes there is simply nowhere to hide during the winter and pugging is inevitable. However hopefully this article will help provide you with some tips on what to do to avoid the worse of it.

Pugging has a major effect on the dry matter production of your pastures and in some cases it can account for a 20 - 80% drop in total pasture yield for up to 8 months. Pugging will also change your pastures composition when the desirable plants are removed and are quickly replaced with undesirable weeds.

Some of the things you can do to avoid pugging during times of heavy weather include:

• spreading stock out at low stocking rates
• graze paddocks for short periods of time 2-4 hours
• stand stock off in either a "sacrifice paddock" or standoff / feed pad in-between grazing
• don't use heavy machinery on paddocks where possible
• don't graze tetraploid ryegrass based pastures, as they will not have the density of your diploid pastures

As mentioned during periods of extended wet weather some pugging is a fact of life and it's important you restore your paddocks quickly to improve dry matter production and reduce the opportunity for weeds to get a foot hold. You will need to assess each paddock carefully to determine your best call to action.

Where the paddock isn't too badly pugged or if you have extensive areas to we offer the following suggestions:

• Short term: 12 - 18 months: Under sow with 15-20 kgs of a quick growing italian ryegrass (e.g. Kano). This will quickly boost your paddocks for between 12-18 months
• Longer term: 3 - 5 years: Sow down 15 - 20 kgs of a perennial ryegrass.

Should your paddocks be severely damaged a full restoration will be required, we would suggest you should consider using a summer brassica or chicory crop followed by an autumn sow down into a high producing perennial ryegrass stand.



Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds for more information on winter pugging.


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Feed management of winter brassicas


Over the next few weeks many of you will start to feed out your winter brassica / fodder beet crops.

A lot of the winter brassica crops I've seen are looking very good and the yields may be higher this year than normal with some fodder beet crops being reported as very high yields already.

We thought it is an opportune time to refresh you with some simple keys to success when starting to use these crops this season.

The first thing you must know is what is the yield and dry matter of the crop you have grown. Brassicas are relatively easy to make a yield assessment on. Click here to download a How to measure a brassica crop download.

Fodder beet on the other hand is more complex, for a variety of reasons therefore we would suggest you seek local expert help to assess not only the total yield but get an accurate picture of your crops dry matter content as this will have a major influence on the final available yield.

Once the yield and dry matter is known you then need to think about the potential stock health issues when grazing brassicas/fodder beets. These include nitrate poisoning, red water and the need to use supplements to name but a few.

The following downloads will provide you with a very good idea of the potential risks and how to mitigate some of them. However that said Specialty Seeds strongly recommends that you should have a quick pre feeding chat with your local vet to refresh yourself with these potential problems, which are normally very easy to avoid once you know what you are looking for.


Download Link: Download the How to measure a brassica crop
Download Link: Download the General safety tips for feeding brassicas.
Download Link: Download the General feeding tips for kale.
Download Link: Download the General feed tips for fodder beet.
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds with any brassica questions

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Winter weed control in established lucerne


Weed control of established Lucerne stands is important and should be done yearly during the months of June and July and to a lesser degree August.

Trial work on weed control on Lucerne stands has shown dry matter yield increases of 57%.

Most of the chemicals suggested in the lucerne winter weed control download requires a minimum stand life of at least 12 months. Click here to download the winter weed control in established lucerne brochure.


Download Link: The Winter weed control in established Lucerne flyer.
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds for any enquiries.


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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
Specialty Seeds - New Zealand