To evaluate different commercially available forage crop varieties for their feed value and capacity to recover during winter and spring in a low rainfall Mallee-Wimmera environment.
Key messages
The choice of vigorous, leafy, nutritious forage crops available for low to medium rainfall environments to supply nutritious green feed to sheep during the winter and spring months continues to expand. Forage cereal crops provide feed during winter; vetch is useful from late winter into spring and forage brassicas provide from late spring into summer. To help decide which forage to grow from the broad range available, first plan the time of greatest need (time of year, duration), intention to harvest silage, hay or grain and the rotational requirements of the paddock in which forage is to be planted.
Lead research organisation
N/A
Host research organisation
N/A
Trial funding source
GRDC BWB00018
Related program
Grain & Graze 2
Acknowledgments
This project is supported by Northern Victoria Grain and Graze 2 (GRDC project BWB00018; funded
by GRDC and Caring for our Country). AWB Seeds, Heritage Seeds, SARDI Oat Breeding Unit, Seed
Distributors, Seedmark, Stephen Pasture Seeds and Upper Murray Seeds all kindly supplied seed for the
trial.
Trial source data and summary not available Check the trial
report PDF for trial results.
Climate
Derived climate information
No observed climate data available for this trial. Derived climate data is
determined from trial site location and national weather sources.
Corack VIC
NOTE: Exact trial site locality unknown - Climate data may not be accurate
SILO weather estimates sourced from https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/
Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B. and Beswick, A.R. (2001). Using spatial interpolation to
construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data , Environmental Modelling and Software, Vol
16/4, pp 309-330. DOI: 10.1016/S1364-8152(01)00008-1.
