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Issue 20 / Spring / September 2011
Hi #subname#
Welcome to the September edition of Specialty Seed's SeedData Newsletter.
With the first days of spring now passing us by and Christmas day looming up again, the Specialty Seeds team are now in full swing and look forward to helping our clients to make their sowing down decisions this spring.
Winter has been a mixed bag this year with some of our North Island clients suffering under a very wet winter while much of the South Island customers had a very mild and dry winter, snow falls aside.
I have been talking to many North and South Island clients recently. Everyone seems to be reporting a good start to the Spring. Many are reporting that their milk production is up and lambing is under way in good weather conditions which is great. You can't beat a good spring!
In this month's newsletter we will cover the latest news in Maize Seed more details on our new Corker kale and a pest that is making its presence felt in the South Island.
In this edition we will preview:
Maize news.
The Corson seed business was purchased by PGG Wrightson Seeds in December 2010, with the purpose of complementing the current PGG Wrightson Seeds product range, creating a complete forage seed business.
Corson Maize Seed has a range of proven maize silage, dual purpose and maize grain hybrids suited for all maize growing regions of New Zealand. Through the PGG Wrightson Seeds R&D capabilities, Corson Maize Seed aims to build on this product range, with the aim of providing hybrid products with the best field performance in each market segment. This is achieved through the evaluation of 30-50 new hybrids each year, which are thoroughly tested for their suitability to the New Zealand market.
Corson Maize Seed is dedicated to making maize easy for both retailers and farmers through education and technical support. This will be achieved through their highly skilled field team as well as a number of resources, such as i-maize hybrid information sheets and the maize silage hybrid decision wheel, which are available on request.
Corsons have access to maize seed suitable for use under organic farming and also a range of their products available in smaller bag sizes for farmers to purchase and put beside their current maize seed to evaluate its performance on your farm, a great idea.
Specialty Seeds also have the latest information and access to all of the other commercially available maize seed from Genetic Technologies (Pioneer) and Pacific Seeds and would welcome the opportunity to discuss these options with you.
Corsons Website Link: Click here to go to the Corson Maize Seed website.
Pacific Seeds Website Link: Click here to go to the Pacific Seed's website.
Pioneer Website Link: Click here to go to the Pioneer's website.
Download Link: Download our Tips for growing a successful Maize Silage Crop brochure.
Contact Link: For any questions or enquiries please don't hesitate to contact us.
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Corka Kale
In the July newsletter we briefly touched on our new Corka Kale and with the brassica season rapidly approaching and as we now have our Corka Kale seed in store we thought it would be a good time to put Corka in front of you again.
Corka Kale is an exciting new highly palatable, intermediate type kale with a high yield potential. A big feature of Corka is its high leaf to stem ratio which helps ensure good utilisation.
We know Corka is suitable for all stock types and will perform very well in any region that can grow kale.
We suggest that you would sow 5 kgs per hectare and strongly recommend the use of Gaucho Treated seed.
Corka Kale will be available this coming Spring season in limited quantities so get in quick.
Website Link: Click here to go to the Corka Kale website page .
Contact Link: For any enquiries on Corka or for more information on please contact us.
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Pasture Pests: Clover Root Weevil
The other day I was being shown around a Canterbury trial site run by Cropmark Seeds. We were looking at a wide range of new perennial ryegrasses that may or may not make it onto the market over the next few years. The paddock surrounding the trial was a typical newly sown dairy pasture, I was more than a little surprised at the extensive damage the Clover Root Weevil (CRW) had done to the clover in this pasture.
The Clover Root Weevil was originally discovered in New Zealand in the Waikato area in 1996, but it is relatively new to the South Island, and unfortunately it looks like it's getting well established down here.
My concern with it in the Canterbury region in particular, is that this area is responsible for the production of all of New Zealand's and much of the world's White Clover seed, so having a pest that can completely remove clover from a paddock is a serious cause for concern.
If you follow the link below you will come to a fact sheet on Clover Root Weevil that explains what to look for, its lifecycle and some strategies that you can put into place to help lessen the effect of this major pastoral pest.
Downloads Link: Download the Clover Root Weevil Pasture Pest information download.
Contact Link: For more information on the CRW or any other pest issues please contact us.
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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 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
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