Australia
April 7, 2016
A new forage tall fescue continues to top replicated three year yield trials around Australia and is delivering much of that extra feed in winter when most producers really need it.
This is excellent news for producers looking to fill their winter feed gap with a highly productive and nutritious grazing option.
When selecting forage varieties, producers should look for varieties with lowest NDF% (fibre) to enable livestock to eat more, and then highest ME (Metabolisable Energy) which carries more energy per kilogram of feed. These two combine to deliver greater livestock performance, as either liveweight gain or milk production.
SF RoyalQ-100 from Seed Force meets these selection criteria, and is the highest yielding forage tall fescue in recent trials, delivering exactly what producers need, exactly when they need it. It is also of higher quality than the leading commercial variety. And if that is not enough to get farmers excited, the seed sells at a lower price.
Michael Gout is Director, Australian Business Development at Seed Force. He said SF RoyalQ-100 is a unique variety and this gives it a distinct advantage over most other continental varieties.
Mike said, “It is a medium leaved continental variety, unlike any of the existing commercial varieties in that it has three summer-active (continental) parents and two winter-active (Mediterranean) parents.”
He went on to explain, “Bred by Gentos in Argentina, SF RoyalQ-100 has shown excellent establishment vigour and much improved autumn-winter growth without any loss of warm season production or persistence. It also has improved quality compared to similar continental types such as Quantum II MaxP, Demeter and SF Festival.”
SF RoyalQ-100 has been the highest yielding variety in three of the four trials in which it has been sown, and has the highest overall yield. It is now starting to become accepted as the new standard for sheep/beef grazing in summer rainfall environments or summer moist soils.
Gentos have spent the past 15 years developing varieties to progress tall fescue on farms in Argentina and Uruguay. In 2011 they launched the Royal Q brand, which has delivered some significant benefits over Advance and Quantum.
Mike said, “These benefits include increased feed quality over Quantum to enable greater daily intake, improved winter yields when feed is most valuable, increased persistence over standard nil endophyte varieties, and a safe grazing option for all livestock classes.”
And the outcome of these benefits has been a rapid adoption of the first release variety Royal Q-100 in South America and more recently in Australia, both with outstanding results.
Mike explained, “Royal Q-100 offers the benefits of a summer active continental tall fescue but with two significant benefits. Firstly, it has two Moroccan lines in its breeding which are highly winter active, resulting in much improved winter feed production. And secondly, the variety offers significant improvement in feed quality, resulting in increased intake and potentially higher meat or milk production. This can be seen as the yield and quality data is fed into the Seed Force Animal Performance Calculator, based on an assumption of 10 year pasture life.”
Producers need to manage tall fescue for best outcomes.
Feed quality results of mono-culture feed tests show the NDF% of tall fescue is well above the 35% level for optimum rumen function, but these results are from testing sole species trial sites under less than ideal grazing.
Tall fescue pastures should ideally be a good mix of grass, legume, and where possible forage herbs such as chicory and plantain. Legumes and herbs have higher ME (11-13 MJ/kg DM) and lower NDF% (18 25%).
This can enable the total sward to have NDF % closer to 35% for increased intake, and higher ME for greater energy available above maintenance requirements to drive greater meat or milk production.
Mike went on to say, “Mixed sward trials have highlighted the fact that tall fescue/white clover based pastures managed well were able to maintain legume content of 35% compared to perennial ryegrass/white clover pastures with less than 15%.”
“This is supported by cattle grazing these mixed sward pastures that are able to achieve live-weight gains of 1.0-1.5kg/hd/day when the pasture is well managed, but when feed gets away from stock live-weight gain declines as does clover content,” he added.
If feed gets away, it is advisable to either mechanically top or cut for hay/silage and get the paddock short and open to maintain both fescue quality and clover/herb composition in the sward.
SF RoyalQ-100 tall fescue ticks a lot of boxes for producers looking to grow a better performing pasture leading to better performing livestock.
Mike concluded, “The key issue is to start with the best tall fescue variety as the base for the pasture selected. Then yield, quality and persistence will follow. SF RoyalQ-100 fills a gap in the Australian market. The trial results are indicating it’s got a package of traits and benefits Australian producers are looking for.”
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