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Issue 74 / Autumn / May 2016
Hi [firstname]
Welcome to the May 2016 SeedData newsletter catalogue.
Recently I spent a week in Aussie visiting relatives and I think it is the only time I have been over there and found that it is greener than New Zealand! When I came back I had to water the lawn. For goodness sake, its May!
However everybody I have been talking to is enjoying this great start to what we can say is winter... long may it continue.
In this month we talk about the winter program for Lucerne, meeting members of the Turkish seed industry and show you some fodder beet cultivars that we are keen on for the coming season.
Please browse these topics below:
Winter Lucerne program
This season appears to have been a great one for Lucerne!
The rains we received in January and February set many of our clients up for four cuts this season which is a very good effort.
Hopefully at some stage during the autumn you will have let your stand produce flowers (normally 10-15%) prior to use.
This is very important as it allows the stand to take in nutrients it requires to survive the winter period well.
The winter is also a really important time, when the Lucerne is dormant, to recharge your Lucerne stand and prepare it for the coming Spring.
The two most important jobs to address they are your soils fertility and controlling weeds in your stand and below we will go into more details on these two important jobs.
Considering a new Spring sown Lucerne stand?
Winter is also an important time for farmers who are considering planting a new stand in the spring to start preparing these paddocks for it.
Spring is definitely the best time to plant Lucerne, recent research, has concluded that autumn sown Lucerne paddocks can take up to 18 months to match dry matter yields that match the dry matter yields of a spring sown stand.
Download some tips on preparing your new lucerne stand: How to establish Lucerne
Soil Fertility.
More soil fertility is removed if your stand is irrigated and or used for silage or hay production than if it is grazed.
For example for every tonne of dry matter per hectare removed from your paddock you are also removing 20 kgs of potassium other important nutrients removed and need to be considered are sulphur and lime.
So now is a great time to have your preferred fertiliser company conduct a soil test on your stand as doing these tests during dry weather will give best results.
Once this test is done they will also be able to give you expert advice on what your paddock will require to produce well in the coming spring.
Weed Control
The upcoming months of June and July are perfect months to control weeds in your Lucerne stand.
Please note the following information is for established (over 12 months old) stands only.
Should you have a younger stand please feel free to contact us for advice.
Lucerne has a poor tolerance of any weeds sharing its space. Weeds lead to poor quality end product, reduce the stands life and compete for valuable nutrients and need to be controlled.
We recommend you wait until frosts have stopped growth then graze the stand quickly. Allow the stand to recover for 3-4 days then apply both a contact and residual chemical.
This application should be done within 10-14 days from the last grazing as the contact herbicides will burn off the stands leaf and grazing within this time will help minimise any crop damage.
In todays market there are many options that you can use to control weeds in your Lucerne stand. Below is a recommendation for a commonly used and time proven contact and residual spray program:
Typical winter weed control program:
- 2-3 litres Paraquat PQ200 + 850 grams Atragranz 90WG per hectare in 200 litres of water.
Note: Always read and follow label instructions before using any chemical.
For more information on PQ200 and Atragranz please follow the links below.
Click on the label to download |
Click on the label to download |
Downloads Link: Download more info from Winter weed control in established Lucerne brochure.
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds if you have any questions in regard to lucerne weed control.
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Turkish seed delegates New Zealand visit
Mr Yidiray Gencer president of TSUAB with Mr Thomas Chin president of the NZGSTA with Mrs Robin Galaway NZ Trade and Industry signing a memorandum of understanding between the two associations.
Mr Gencer and Mr Chin swapping gifts after the signing of the memorandum.
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The good thing about my job is the variety of roles I have to play within it. Recently I spent a very interesting morning meeting with members from some of the leading Turkish seed companies.
Between the 5th and 8th of April this year the New Zealand Grain and Seed Association (NZGSTA) of which Specialty Seeds have been a long term member, hosted members from their Turkish equal (TSUAB).
New Zealand exports a significant $170 to $220+ (depending on the season) million dollars worth of seed every year to a wide range of overseas countries.
To my knowledge there has been little if any seed exported to Turkey who with a population of 76 million people is a large importer of certain seeds.
So to have this large delegation of seed companies and seed industry officials specifically visit our county was a real opportunity for our industry.
For a country so far removed (isolated) from its markets in terms of seed production New Zealand punches above its weight. How do we do this?
It is simple as we have three big advantages:
- Our climate is perfect for the production of most seeds
- We have the best seed producing farmers in the world that farm on some of the best soil types
- New Zealand is known to produce the best seed quality for our many overseas clients.
The delegation met on the evening of the 5th and spent the next two days looking over our seed producers farms, shown our plant breeding and seed quality companies and through some of our seed processing facilities.
On the final morning the NZGSTA set up trading tables where members, like Specialty Seeds, and members from TSUAB could talk face to face regarding potential business opportunities.
We were told by delegation members this was a very important session for them and I personally talked to at least ten different company representatives.
It was great to meet people from a different country and I know business will grow with Turkey from it.
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds if you have any questions.
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New Fodder beet cultivars impress
I recently spend a few days touring around fodder beet crops in the lower South Island through to Blenheim.
The purpose of this trip was to evaluate some cultivars I have been considering us to market in the future.
The growth of fodder beet as a winter crop in New Zealand has been outstanding as farmers have been quick to realize this crops potential.
Just how many hectares are now grown in New Zealand is subject for debate however I would say it is in the top two or three most important winter feed sources, without doubt!
Specialty Seeds have and will always search out the best products for our clients and this was the catalysed for my fodder beet cultivar search.
I amm happy to say that three main cultivars we have been looking into are performing exceptionally well in both trials and on farm situations.
Over the next two months I will bring you more details on the progress we are making with these cultivars however until then I hope you enjoy these pictures.
Website Link: Check out the Specialty Seeds Fodderbeet page.
Contact Link: Contact Specialty Seeds if you have any comments, suggestions or questions.
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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
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