As seen in Farm Weekly, 13/04/2023

Successful forage production is about making the right choice about what pasture is best suited to your farm to ensure maximum potential to produce dry matter and high-quality feed for your livestock.

Selecting the right type of pasture is determined by different factors:

  • Rainfall – including prevalence of summer rainfall
  • Soil type
  • Soil limitations – pH and salinity
  • Livestock type
  • Benefits of crop rotation – nitrogen fixing

It is important to consider your ability to manage your pasture based upon the capacity and available resources and infrastructure that you have available.

Achieving the best production in a season

Annual ryegrasses such as Abundant, Amazon T and Dominator in tetraploids, or Dargo, Epic, Safeguard and Finefeed as diploids, are bred for maximum production over the growing period and they perform the best when sown as a pasture crop.

Optimum production will be when they are rotationally grazed throughout the growing season (where there are early season, mid-season or late season varieties being sown).

These can then be locked up for silage or hay in the spring.

Sowing rates depend on rainfall, in the lower rainfall areas 10 kilograms/hectare of diploid ryegrass is sufficient whereas in the higher rainfall areas you should sow up to 25kg/ha to optimise production.

The Irwin Hunter Pasture Growers Guide 2023 will give you expected sowing rates for each type of pasture seed, with its most extensive range of species available in WA.

Economics shows that it is cheaper to resow annual ryegrasses each year rather than forgo two to three tonne/ha of dry matter to try to get the pasture to re-seed.

By allowing the paddock to re-seed it will also increase the weed burden in your paddock.

Pasture mixes are frequently used to create greater diversity in the pasture which will also ensure better persistence for farmers moving towards regenerative agriculture.

Irwin Hunter & Co pasture mixes

The best pasture contains a mixture of grasses and legumes and although using a mixture might not always provide the most productive option available, it will essentially provide a safer, more adaptable and forgiving option to a wide range of challenges faced by the farmer.

Irwin Hunter & Co’s SouWest Pasture Mix is the original benchmark product for all mixes in WA and it is continually being improved using varieties that perform consistently year-in, year-out, in multiple locations and continues to produce excellent results.

It is a balanced combination of ryegrasses and clovers.

It pays to allow the paddock to run to seed in the first year after grazing through winter and early spring.

This will give you a good seed bank for the following years ahead.

Another great Irwin Hunter & Co mix is the Silahay Mix.

It comprises two of our top ryegrass varieties, Abundant and Dargo and is complemented with Balansa and Persian clovers.

For farmers looking to produce high quality hay or silage, this mix will provide them with maximum production.

Our Irwin Hunter & Co mix, Maximix components make it an excellent choice for farmers looking for ‘bang for buck’.

It contains a wide range of both tetraploid and diploid ryegrasses with varying maturities, as well as a selection of aerial clovers that are selected for their upright growth habit which provide good competition to the ryegrasses and Saia oats in the mix therefore making it a good choice for a high-quality forage, hay or silage.

The new Cover Crop Plus mixes with both a winter and summer version, focuses on diversity with the inclusion of up to 13 species that provide high levels of biomass, both above and below the soil to serve as a living mulch that improves soil quality and microbial activity in the soil.

Interow Mix is ideally suited to vineyard, orchard, and plantation farmers.

The selection of species is designed to provide a good balance of ground cover over an extended period of the year and is a key inter row addition for attracting beneficial insects that can assist in pollination and in controlling insect pests.

Interow Mix improves soil structure, aids with waterlogging and can also be cut for mulching.

The Green Manure Mix is a popular mix for farmers looking to improve the quality of their soil.

Green manure is grown specifically to be tilled back into the soil, thus returning important nutrients back into the soil.

Green manure can improve soil that has been depleted from prior crops or provide the perfect preparation for new crops that may be nutrient hungry.

Green manure also improves the soil structure and water retention, drawing minerals up through the soil profile and making them more available to plants.

Irwin Hunter & Co maintains that these notes are a guide and should be used in conjunction with more detailed information and advice.

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