For more information 0800 171 825 It’s time to do things GLƬHUHQWO\ Choose Germinal for cutting-edge clover and ryegrass varieties that improve livestock performance while reducing your environmental footprint. germinal.co.nz Trying a new pasture mix to improve farm productivity Tim McRae’s Southland farm has been in his wife Justine’s family for more than 90 years, but the generational farmers aren’t afraid to try new technologies and products to get the best out of their land. Located just south of Edendale, Tim milks 500 cows on their 240-hectare property. The farm also has a wintering shed and runs around 80 beef cattle each year. Three years ago, after a discussion with his Advance Agriculture Technical Field Representative, Tim decided to try a new pasture mix and incorporated Germinal’s High Sugar Grass, AberGain, to improve soil fertility and production. “The mix that we’re using seems to handle it really well. It’s been a nice fast rotation and we’re getting good establishment out of it,” says Tim McRae. “It’s been relatively clean, we haven’t had to spray for weeds, and it’s allowed it to get off to a good start and then it just seems to grow and grow!” Exclusive to Germinal, Aber High Sugar Grasses (HSG) are a climate-smart forage solution. The range of perennial ryegrass varieties is bred to produce more water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) or sugars. The higher sugar content creates a better balance of energy and protein in the rumen, allowing the microbes responsible for the breakdown of forage to operate more ef ciently. As a result, more grass protein is converted to meat and milk; with less protein wasted, and lower ammonia and methane emissions. Tim says they regrass about 10% of the farm each year and it’s a crucial part of their production. “Our young grass is pretty important to us to keep the productivity of the farm up. We target our poorer performing paddocks and get the new species into them,” says Tim. “You spend a lot of money when you regrass and it’s nice to be able to get the performance back out of it.” Around 40 hectares of Tim’s farm uses Germinal’s AberGain in its pasture mix and he says they’ve already seen great results in terms of growth. The farm’s average grass growth was around 12 tonnes last year, in one of the toughest growing seasons, but the paddocks using AberGain grew around 14 tonnes. “It’s worth quite a bit of money when you quantify the grass,” says Tim. “It’s an extra two tonnes, and at 23 cents a kilo to buy, that’s another $460 a hectare. It’s well worth it, especially in a year where we’ve had pretty tough growing conditions. “We haven’t got paddocks that are eight or nine years old yet, but from what we’ve seen so far it’s been really good and those three-year-old paddocks are performing very well.” Germinal is rapidly becoming the forage seed supplier of choice for farmers wanting better pasture performance, better stock performance, and a viable option for reducing synthetic nitrogen use and methane gas emissions. Contact Germinal New Zealand on 0800 171 825, or talk to your local merchant, to nd out how Aber High Sugar Grasses could work in your farm system.
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