A south-eastern Queensland farmer said his trials of a newly available lucerne variety reveal that it effectively combines desirable traits of both semi-winter and winter-active varieties, delivering his best yields in 20 years.
Now on his seventh harvest of trials of S&W Seed Company’s SW7403 at ‘Parklyon’ near Nobby, QLD, Pat Lyons is pleased to observe vigorous winter-active style growth performance in conjunction with the highly palatable leaf-to-stem characteristics of a traditional semi-winter-active variety.
“The combination is amazing” Mr Lyons said.
“I’ve had it in the ground now since May 2017, and we had seven cuts off it last summer, in incredibly tough conditions.”
Mr Lyons planted the crop at around 30kg/ha, and reported that it came up well, with a nice, even stand right from the start.
“We had pivot irrigation in place, however, this has been the worst drought in living memory, and this variety has grown very well in those conditions,” he said.
“We’re really happy, and we are looking forward to the next three or four years with it.”
S&W Seed Company is a marketer and developer of non-dormant lucerne varieties.
The varieties are optimised for performance and productivity including strong resistance, according to a company spokesman.
- Contact: 0427 551 395 (NSW), 0409 770 386 (QLD/VIC) or visit: swseedco.com.