NZ Farmer

Choose pasture quality this spring

Like it or not, pasture ages and becomes less productive. By regrassing 10% of pasture each year, you are ensuring that yield and quality are consistent­ly high enough to drive profitable livestock production.

When to take action

Identify older paddocks and compare them with your best performers. Do you see any of these issues?

• DM yield dropping

• ME quality decreasing

• Ground is badly pugged

• Weeds are now 10% of ground cover

• Less grazing of paddock

• Less silage produced

Spring is ideal for pasture renewal

Regrassing in spring or early summer is ideal in colder areas due to improving soil and air temperatur­es and ground conditions compared to autumn.

Rising temperatur­es and longer days will help achieve good germinatio­n and establishm­ent of the new seed. Improving ground conditions will enable more frequent grazing of renewed paddocks. This is crucial for the tillering process.

Aber High Sugar Grass: Big on energy

Yield is fundamenta­l to productive pasture, but there are additional factors that can take your livestock system to the next level.

Aber High Sugar Grasses (HSG) from Germinal are true perennial ryegrasses (PRG) with 17% higher water-soluble carbohydra­tes (WSC) versus standard ryegrasses­1.

The additional WSCS improve the natural digestive energy imbalance that causes ruminant animals to waste much of the protein they consume.

With Aber HSG pasture, livestock can capture more of the protein from grass to improve production and reduce methane emissions1.

“We’ve been using Germinal since 2006. Practicall­y the whole farm has now got Aber HSG. It’s very good

persistent grass, it establishe­s well. So that just flows through to good milk production. I would recommend growing Germinal grasses.” – Katy Button, a dairy farmer situated in Balclutha.

Abergain tetraploid

A late-heading (plus 24) tetraploid PRG, Abergain can yield 12,000kg Dm/ha in a year. With strong growth in late spring, it provides quality grazing and cutting.

As a tetraploid, Abergain is highly palatable to livestock, helping increase animal production, especially in dairy platforms.

Abergain is also densely tillered, helping it better withstand wet weather and compete with new weed growth. Available with the AR1 endophyte, Abergain produces throughout the lower North Island and South Island.

Abergreen diploid

With Abergreen, you have a diploid option yielding around 13,000kg Dm/ha each year. Producing vigorous ground cover due to its tiller density, Abergreen offers enduring persistenc­e and outstandin­g late-spring yields.

Compared to standard ryegrass, Abergreen is 5.5% higher in digestibil­ity2, resulting in increased meat and milk production.

Abergreen is also available with AR1 and is effective in the lower North Island and the South Island.

Renew your pasture with Abergreen and Abergain. Contact us by email at enquiries@germinal.co.nz or scan the QR code.

Jonker et al (2014). Methane 1 emissions by sheep offered highsugar or convention­al perennial ryegrass at two allowances. Proceeding­s of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 74: 145 - 147.

2 Plant Research (NZ) Ltd (2014). Unpublishe­d. Mean digestibil­ity values were measured across five harvests at Ashburton from Oct 2013 to Mar 2014.