A NSW Mid-North Coast farmer says his trials of a new forage sorghum “grew like mushrooms right from the start”, delivering about 24 tonnes of feed from a single 12mm in-crop rain event.
The one-hectare trial of S&W Seed Company's SweetAs forage sorghum was planted on Christmas Eve.
“People were quickly commenting on how well it grew”, Steve Calleja, "Windy Hollow", Austral Eden near Kempsey, said.
“Then when I was mowing in mid-February, it was quite amazing what came off it. I thought if I can get 30 bales I’ll be doing well, but I ended up getting 46, which was great off such small block.”
Mr Calleja operates almost 1000ha with a mix of beef and dairy. He has already planted more SweetAs sorghum with plans to expand plantings in the future.
SweetAs is a product of S&W Seed Company. NSW S&W sales manager, Shane Kable, says northern NSW growers still could have a small sowing window remaining in the current season to generate additional silage.