A Meat & Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site
Year 3 of the ASHEEP Pasture Variety Trials Meat & Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site is underway. Year 1 & 2 were the plot trials, and for the next 3 years we follow producers who are using varieties from the trial - taking biomass cuts, nutritive analysis and sharing information on how growers use the varieties and their performance. We will also be monitoring regeneration of the plot trials where viable.
The project team met earlier in the year, and have selected the following sites to monitor:
Barloo / RM4 Vetch Mix (Simeon Roberts)
RM4 Vetch (Simeon Roberts)
Leafmore Brassica with Geraldton Clover / Ryegrass mix (Peter McCrea)
Sulla (Dave Vandenberghe)
Snail Medic (Dave Vandenberghe)
RM4 Vetch (Dave Vandenberghe)
Abundant Ryegrass/ Forester Oats / Regina Vetch mix (Nick Ruddenklau)
Forester Oat / Planet Barley mix in subclover (Nick Ruddenklau)
RM4 Vetch (Mark Walter)
Leafmore brassica (Mark Walter)
Abundant Ryegrass/ Forester Oat / Regina Vetch mix (Nick Ruddenklau)
Forester Oat / Planet Barley in subclover (Nick Ruddenklau)
RM4 vetch / Abundant Ryegrass / Planet Barley / Illabo Wheat/ Eliza Serradella/ Bladder clover / Oats mix (Ryan Willing)
Illabo Wheat (Ryan Willing)
Planet barley (Ryan Willing)
We welcome Chad Hall, Sinead O'Gara, and Rachel Minnet from South Coastal Agencies who will be adding their expertise to the trials this year, as they have agreed to take on the testing, measurements and monitoring for ASHEEP. The team at South East Agronomy Research will be stepping away after managing the plot trials in Year 1 and Year 2. Theo Oorschot, Esperance Rural Supplies, has had ongoing input on this project and we continue to value the knowledge he shares.
If you are planning on planting something next season that you think would be good to include, call Dave Vandenberghe 0427786049. We are running a WhatsApp group for the project and those interested are welcome to join and share information on pastures.
Image 1-4 below supplied by Ryan Willing, 24/5/22 Condingup.
1: Illabo wheat seeded 18/4 into minimal moisture. At time of photo is was quite dry at this farm on Savage Road. Plan to gaze mid-June.
2: Planet Barley seeded 24/4 on the same farm.
3: Completely different story out the eastern end, very wet after the huge rainfall event mid-April, this is my pasture mix on deep non wetting sand. Grass / cereals looking amazing but legumes are poor.
4: Unfortunately the rain event took out 80% of my pasture mix due to burst seed, so had to be reseeded 14/5.
