Ralph Billing - Sowsmart Winter Express & SowSmart HDL Blend Ralph Billing of Marrar, in southern NSW, has a SowSmart blend of pasture species trialled on the property last season. A background in dairying and a need to identify pasture species suited to the area led Ralph Billing, at Marrar in southern New South Wales, to plant a number of pasture blends on the property last season. Mr Billing said there was a need look at varieties that were best adapted to the property, so he planted the Seed Distributors products SowSmart Winter Express and SowSmart HDL Blend. The Winter Express is predominately made up of two ryegrass varieties, although 30 percent of the blend consists of Persian and Berseem clovers. HDL Blend contains five different types of clover species and can be used as a grazing option, paddock break and a way of contributing nitrogen back into the soil. Mr Billing said the weedy nature of the paddocks meant the blends were not sown until after a knockdown herbicide was applied following the late-April break. He said the ryegrass component (made up of Tetrone Annual Italian Ryegrass and Rocket Annual Italian Ryegrass) of the Winter Express Blend grew really well early in the season and provided excellent grazing. The intention with the paddock was to lock it up for silage for beef cattle, however the poor finish to the season and a very hot spell meant that wasn’t possible. Eventually the sheep were re-introduced to the paddock to clean up the regrowth. Mr Billing said they had used Diploid-type ryegrasses with good success while on the dairy farm. He was interested to see the performance of tetraploid ryegrasses such as Tetrone and Rocket on the property. Tetraploid ryegrasses have double the amount of chromosomes (28) compared to diploid ryegrasses (which have 14 chromosomes). The increased amount of chromosomes typically lead to better tillering, faster growth, larger leaf size, higher moisture and better carbohydrate content. “If you could sow in late March or early April and control the weeds I think the ryegrass would do quite well,” Mr Billing said. The clover-based HDL blend was trialled in two paddocks and emerged well but ran out of moisture later in the season. “I’m hope it will set seed so we can have the feed for next year,” Mr Billing said. He said the dairy background provided a few ideas in managing pasture on country which was a combination of cropping and pasture. “We are mixed farming here, with an orientation towards grazing, rather than growing crops,” he said. Some dairying techniques such as silage have been implemented with success on the property. Mr Billing said the dry conditions over much of the decade had made it very difficult to establish a perennial pasture. He said trials on the property and in the area were important to determine what species are well adapted. Last season Seed Distributors planted a forage demonstration evaluation site on a nearby farm with the full range of varieties. Some cereal varieties were also trialled on the Billing property. Mr Billing said the new Moby forage barley variety was impressive with the way it jumped out of the ground and provided good feed early in the season. He said he would also like to the Goldstrike Bartolo bladder clover variety which looked promising in the trials. Ralph Billing of Marrar, in southern NSW