As seen in Farm Weekly, 25/01/2024

With a lingering El Nino disrupting weather patterns and subdued livestock prices, 2024 could be a challenging year for farmers in Western Australia.

After a difficult 2023, farmers will need to make tough decisions and engage in early planning.

This may involve destocking by selling or agisting livestock, as well as buying in feed.

It is crucial for farmers to assess their pastures objectively and manage their existing feed to match their stocking rate to their projected lowest feed bank.

Over grazing should be avoided to prevent negative impacts on pasture recovery and soil erosion.

Before or at the onset of the new season, farmers will need to assess their plant populations to determine the best options for recovery.

This could include re-sowing, over-sowing, or resting the pasture to regain the required plant density.

Pastures that have been grazed intensively may have reduced diversity and weed incursion, so re-seeding or over-sowing should be considered.

A summer rainfall event could also be considered as an opportunity to provide additional feed or perhaps more importantly cover in the form of a cover crop.

If a rainfall event is forecasted in your area before the onset of the autumn break, then based on the likelihood of receiving sufficient rainfall for germination and subsequent growth, a farmer could choose to plant fast-growing summer cover crop or take a long-term pasture strategy and plant tropical perennials.

Long term weather forecasts are difficult to predict but with the existing irregular weather patterns, farmers will need to make decisions early, preparing for best- and worst-case scenarios by having a contingency plan, objectively appreciating what your current feed position is and making realistic forecasts to feed budget based on your stocking rates, selling or supplementary feeding being the two most likely outcomes and finally strict financial management in consideration of potentially reduced profitability.

Irwin Hunter & Co pasture mixes

After a difficult season, farmers should consider re-seeding or over-sowing with a mix suitable for their environmental conditions and livestock enterprise.

One of the biggest impacts after a dry season is species composition where more palatable species are likely to be reduced or even depleted by grazing.

Diverse mixes therefore should be sown to ensure that your pastures have a combination of both grasses and legumes providing the balance between feed production and feed quality as well as supporting your soil health.

SouWest pasture mix provides a diverse mix of species which performs consistently year-in, year-out and in multiple locations with excellent results achieved and sets the benchmark for mixes in WA.

It is a balanced mix of ryegrasses, sub and aerial clovers and the preferred mix in WA.

Maximix is increasingly becoming more popular, being designed to give you bang for your buck.

This mix has our largest ranges of both tetraploid and diploid ryegrass varieties and aerial clovers varieties which with a combination of shorter and longer season maturities, provide for high levels of production throughout the entire growing season.

For farmers looking specifically for pastures to produce hay or silage, the most popular mixes are Silahay or Western Annual.

Both mixes contain two of the most productive ryegrasses in Western Australia, Abundant and Dargo.

In the case of Silahay, the addition of Balansa and Persian clovers provide for a better quality hay.

For farmers in lower rainfall areas or those wanting a more forgiving pasture mix that is easily managed and regenerative then Irwin Hunter & Co’s Self Regeneration mix is their best choice.

Safeguard, an early maturing and annual ryegrass toxicity resistant diploid ryegrass being the main component, and including both sub and aerial clovers, this wide range of different maturing varieties ensure a protection against false breaks during the season and early finishes to the season.

Our Interow mix focuses on a selection of varieties that produces a cover crop that attempts to create ideal conditions for a balanced ecosystem and to improve soil health and where beneficial insects can thrive.

Equi1st Pasture mix is the most popular and healthy horse pasture mix in WA for the equine industry.

Horse feed requirements are so different to that for sheep and cattle.

An ideal horse pasture should be relatively low in sugars and starch, moderate in protein but still highly palatable.

The selection of perennials, both grasses and legumes take all these factors into consideration and provide a healthy feed for a year-round pasture, moisture dependent.

Last year Irwin Hunter & Co released its Winter and then Summer Cover Crop Plus Mix.

These two mixes are specifically targeted at farmers wishing to improve their soil health and additionally farmers who have embarked on carbon farming, with cover crops being one of the requisite conditions.

Irwin Hunter & Co will release a new mix this season, Nitro Mix.

Nitro Mix is a combination of white seeded sub clovers, aerial clovers and a serradella making it highly adaptable and versatile mix that can be used to renovate existing grass pastures, improve your soil health or as a high protein forage pasture with managed grazing.

All seeds used are bare, that are not genetically modified nor chemically treated and therefore can be used by organic farmers.

With the largest range of pasture seeds in WA, Irwin Hunter & Co can Mix & Match to the farmers requirements.

Irwin Hunter & Co ryegrasses and other grasses

For annuals, the most popular being Abundant, a tetraploid and Dargo, a diploid.

Other notable tetraploid varieties in this range include Amazon T and Astound, both Australian bred varieties that have been bred with excellent rust resistance meaning they will continue to produce well into the spring.

Other tetraploids include Dominator, Burst and New Tetila.

For diploids, Safeguard being a unique variety that’s breeding provides it with annual ryegrass toxicity (ARGT) resistance and with a management plan over several years will assist in eradicating ARGT on your farm.

Finefeed is another Australian bred variety that has a longer growing season and therefore can produce well into the spring.

With its higher tiller density, it allows it to recover quickly from grazing.

Other ryegrasses in our range include Italian, Amass, a tetraploid and Achieve, a diploid.

Our perennial range of ryegrasses include Dunstan, Violet and Roper.

Other grasses

Grasses such as Tall Fescue and Yarck cocksfoot are more tolerant and forgiving perennial grasses that are widely adapted and can persist in adverse conditions.

Amplify phalaris is one of the most persistent grasses, being deep rooted, it is drought tolerant and additionally also can tolerate waterlogging and acidic soils so is very adaptable.

Mission Veldt has similar characteristics to the phalaris species and is well suited to very sandy soils.

For farmers that are trying to establish pastures on reasonable high saline soils they should consider sowing Puccinellia or Tall Wheat Grass.

Irwin Hunter & Co also has an extensive range of tropical perennial grasses, such as Rhodes grasses which can be used to establish long term pastures.

Irwin Hunter & Co legumes

Aerial clovers such as Arrowleaf, Hykon Rose and Serradellas grow well in deep sands or lower pH soils.

Arrowleaf clover will successfully grow on the better-quality soils.

Hykon Rose clover is a reasonably early flowering cultivar with broad soil type adaptation and a moderate level of hard seeds.

Serradellas include Santorini serradella (yellow flowering) or the newly released Serramax, an early flowering variety, Margurita is hard seeded French serradella (pink flowering) or Fran2o Serradella, a new released French serradella that is earlier maturing and more productive even under extremely difficult conditions.

Cadiz and Eliza French serradella, being soft seeded are sold in the pod.

In areas that are prone to water logging, white seeded sub clovers such as Riverina, Shaftal and Kyambro persian clovers and Paradana Balansa perform well, as well as Strawberry Clover that tends to be the most persistent but also tolerates mild salinity and alkaline soils.

Casbah Biserrula and Cavalier Medic are more productive and persistent in lower rainfall areas than sub clovers and well adapted across soil types and pH levels.

They have high levels of hard seed and once established can tolerate heavy grazing which makes them very persistent.

Subterranean clovers include shorter season varieties such as Izmir and Nungarin are best suited to lower rainfall areas while Seaton Park and Leura, being long season suited to higher rainfall areas.

Urana, an improved variety of Dalkeith and Dalkeith are very productive sub clovers that are well adapted and extensively used as a pasture component across WA.

Alternative forage and cover crops

During the cooler months crops such as Common Vetch, Forage Peas, Cereal Rye and Saia Oats can be grown, which all are very quick to establish, have dense root systems and quickly produce high levels of biomass.

These are commonly mixed to provide the benefits of the legume and cereal components, an example being Irwin Hunter & Co’s Green Manure Mix.

Other cover crops are used to specifically address soil issues, such as Tillage Forage Radish and Sunflower have similar attributes and are very deep rooted and can assist in breaking through a hard pan and recovering nutrients from below the crop root zone.

Buckwheat and Freyrs Sunn Hemp are other very beneficial cover crops while Hobson Forage Brassica can also be used as a cover crop or if rotationally grazed can produce a high amount of forage.

Contact your local farm supplier or Irwin Hunter & Co for more information regarding the extensive range of pasture seed and mixes.