Interesting to see the debate about tall fescue.
>
>Here’s another perspective.
>
>In the Project 3030 farmlet trial at DemoDairy,
>we are looking at ways of increasing home grown
>forage consumption and profit. We have tall
>fescue on 30% of the area of one of the farmlets
>(15% is in forage crops, and 55% in
>ryegrass). It's there because we?re interested
>in its ability to grow green feed for 6 weeks
>longer into the summer compared to perennial
>ryegrass (which we saw in earlier trials), and
>the value of this for milk production. Half of
>the tall fescue was sown in 2001 to the cultivar
>Advance, the other half was sown this autumn to
>Advance (one paddock), and Advance Max P (another paddock).
>
>On the plus side, we’ve been grazing the older
>tall fescue every 14 16 days since mid August,
>and been able to bale more than double the
>amount of silage from the ryegrass than we
>expected. This will be handy, going into a dry
>spring. Fescue growth rates have been nudging
>70 kg DM/ha/day in the last half of September,
>the ryegrass has been doing about 50 kg over the
>same period. We’ve had 3 grazings off the new
>tall fescue (as many as the new ryegrass sown
>the same time), despite its reputation for slow
>establishment (true, it has been a ripper season for new grass).
>
>On the minus side, last year when the older tall
>fescue wasn’t well managed before it came into
>the farmlets we had a lot of clumps and poor
>utilization. This year we’re using pre-grazing
>mowing every second grazing on the older tall
>fescue to make sure we keep on top of the
>clumps. With only 14 day regrowth intervals,
>the fouled areas don’t break down much between
>grazings so mowing / topping is likely to be
>needed to help manage the plant. And we had 2
>goes at getting the new tall fescue established
> failed in April 2005, when the autumn rains
>didn?t come til June, even though ryegrass
>established from the same sowing date. So, yes,
>things needs to be in your favour to get it
>going, but you can move things in your favour with management.
>
>Provided we keep on top of the tall fescue and
>have it green and leafy we have seen absolutely
>no problems with palatability, intake or milk
>production. The older tall fescue was grazed
>this week and the cows ate it back to the boards
>(caught us by surprise), without pre-grazing
>mowing. These cows have been stocked at 2.8 /
>ha (3.5 / ha of pasture) doing 36 litres per
>day, 2.6 kg milk solids, throughout September on
>16 kg of pasture intake and 5.5 of grain, with
>probably 40% of their pasture intake from fescue
>and milk yield hasn?t been affected when they
>move from ryegrass to fescue. No problem with
>endophyte, no cranky or sick cows. Advance,
>like all the new varieties on the market is
>endophyte free (as John Evans explained)
>except for the Max P varieties which have been
>bred with a novel endophyte which gives
>protection against pest damage but doesn't
>produce the ergovalines which cause the animal
>behaviour problems. Old Demeter fescue will do
>this, but the new varieties shouldn?t.
>
>There’s no doubt it needs different management
>to ryegrass. Critical to graze at 14 day
>intervals when its firing in spring, otherwise
>quality will fall off. How does this fit into
>the whole system? Well, this is one of the
>things we want to find out from the trial (tall
>fescue is just part of it). So far, we’re
>pretty happy with what we’re getting, but have more to learn.
>
>Cheers
>
>David Chapman and Jay Tharmaraj
>
>Agriculture and Food Systems
>University of Melbourne
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