Grazier praises ryegrass
Renovating exhausted pastures for merinos
FARMERS across Australia are experiencing the benefits of a new annual ryegrass recently released by PGG Wrightson Seeds.
For Southern Tablelands sheep and cattle producer Alex Willson, who breeds poll merinos, the advantages of using Ascend are undeniable.
“We have granite-based sandy loams that are very acidic, low in phosphorous and high in aluminium – so we have to apply lime to improve soil pH, and we also need to fertilise to improve soil fertility,” he said.
Mr Wilson’s biggest challenge is the renovation of exhausted pastures, which often have a high proportion of poor quality annuals, natives and weeds.
“Most of our paddocks consist of native pastures with a poor fertiliser history,” he said.
“We struggle to fill feed gaps in winter and summer – and there’s often a need to introduce supplementary grain and hay through winter for pregnant ewes, and during the summer months for weaners.”
Following advice from their agronomist, he decided to trial 10 hectares of Ascend tetraploid annual ryegrass.
❝ Ascend been has fantastic. It’s proven very handy for weight gain, and it’s been highly productive. — Alex Wilson
“Our agronomist has a considerable amount of experience using annual ryegrass in a paddock rotation to control weed problems in exhausted pastures,” he said.
He recommended Ascend, based on its high feed quality and production potential.
“We also planted Cooba Oats at the same time, to see how it would compare to the Ascend in terms of grazing yield and digestibility,” he said.
“Our trialed paddocks were fallow sprayed, limed and ameliorated, then sprayed again and harrowed pre-sowing.
“We then planted the Ascend at 25 kilograms per hectare, with a 20mm sowing depth using a disc drill with press wheels – while the oats were sown at 100 kilograms per hectare.”
Mr Wilson was more than surprised by the overall results.
“During winter, we had 25 dry sheep equivalents (DSE) per hectare for eight weeks, and we grazed an average of 45 DSE per hectare from late August to the start of November 2017,” he said.
“We’ve also done a couple of cut and feed tests – and we were both surprised and pleased with the results.”
The results showed a resounding win for Ascend, which achieved pre-graze yields of 2.65 tonnes per hectare of dry matter, versus 1.9 per hectares of dry matter for Cooba Oats. He then conducted a second cut test based on similar grazing pressures, and Ascend achieved 3.6 tonnes per hectare, compared to their Cooba Oat paddock, which achieved 1.7 tonnes.
Alex said plans are now in place to plant 50 hectares of Ascend tetraploid annual ryegrass next year:
“Ascend has been fantastic. It’s proven very handy for weight gain, and it’s been highly productive,” he said.
Visit www.pggwrightsonseeds.com.au.