SPECIAL REPORT
RYEGRASS
Collaborating on forages Left: Matt Deighton with agronomist Richard Moate (L) at Cropmark Seeds cultivar evaluation site hosted by Fonterra suppliers Tony & Sue Reynolds near Burnham.
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collaboration between a Canterbury seed company and a local farmer is paying dividends for both. Cropmark Seeds, a Canterbury-based seed breeding company is working closely with Burnham-based dairy farmers Tony and Sue Reynolds to evaluate lines of forage grasses it has developed within its plant breeding programme. Cropmark breed and supply a full portfolio of forage grasses, clovers, herbs, brassicas and novel endophytes for dairy farming systems from their base in Selwyn. The company is the country’s only fully NZ-owned forage grass and crop seed company - all its competitors are overseasowned. As part of its R&D programme, it runs a network of large-scale onfarm cultivar evaluation trials across multiple dairy farms in Canterbury, the Waikato and Victoria, Australia each overseen by a regional trials
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agronomist. In these trials, cultivars are evaluated under both simulated grazing (cut) and herd grazing in irrigated and rainfed environments. Cropmark’s technical manager Dr Matt Deighton oversees all trialing activities conducted by the company. “Factors such as seasonal drymatter yield, metabolisable energy, digestibility, grazing preference, disease and insect pest tolerance, animal safety and persistence are all measured,” Matt says. “We want to ensure that our forages perform consistently across the country. To begin with, new cultivars must excel within managed trials, but it’s equally important that they demonstrate robust performance under commercial conditions, and that’s where our relationships with our host farmers comes to the fore.” “The Cropmark breeding programme produces hundreds of nucleus seed lines each year, all of which enter first-stage
productivity trials within replicated ‘mini swards’. To increase trial throughput, Cropmark have recently imported a Gianni Ferrari forage harvester from Italy, enabling a single operator to maintain the yield measurement rotation - speed is key with over 1500 ‘mini swards’ to maintain.” Being able to work onfarm with cooperative farmers is essential for the company, and that is where Tony and Sue Reynolds come in. The company runs a series of trials each year on their property, and this enables screening of varieties based on their onfarm performance. Tony and Sue milk a crossbred herd of 380 cows under irrigation on the outskirts of Burnham. After many years of farm management, they decided to develop their own farm and in 2018 converted their dry-stock property. Hosting Cropmark’s onfarm trials enables them to keep up with the latest in forage development and they value being able to view the performance of a range of varieties under their environment and management practices. “With a stocking rate of 4.75 cows/ha we have a real focus on maintaining high quality pastures and our home-grown feed supply,” Tony says. “This season we’re on track to produce 2500kg milksolids (MS)/ha, so supporting Cropmark to develop new highperformance forages and getting them into our system quickly is a win-win for us.”
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021
