All pasture and forage varieties available from Notman Pasture Seeds are thoroughly trialled and tested on farms throughout Australia & New Zealand to assess their performance capability under varying farming conditions. Notman Pasture Seeds continue to work with our main suppliers to trials and demonstrate new & existing forage products. Forage varieties are evaluated in these trials for a number of performance- related criteria, including: Where necessary, the company undertakes animal performance trials to assess the impact of its varieties on livestock performance and health. A key aspect of the Notman Pasture Seeds culture is the continued focus on research through replicated pasture & cropping trials and making that data relevant to the bottom line of farmers. All trials are […]
Category: Recent News
Farm Chat with Dave Barry – Labertouche
With our calving pattern we have a big requirement for late summer and autumn feed, so chicory delivers a large amount of quality feed when we need it most. Chicory give us the extra feed in autumn and assists us to create our own autumn break. We began growing Chico chicory fourteen years ago with the aim to get the most out the 22ML of water available on our farm at Labertouche. We were originally irrigating summer pastures, however the results were only average with the pasture suffering from rust and plant pulling. Yet the results we saw from irrigating the chicory were outstanding, and when effluent was applied the growth rates were even higher. I have used a number […]
Gippsland discussion group visits northern NSW
Visits to some of northern NSW’s leading dairy and beef farms were among the highlights of a 4 day agricultural tour organised by Notman Pasture Seeds in late January. A group of seventeen dairy farmers from West and South Gippsland toured Neal’s Dairy on Oxley Island, Hurrell’s Dairy in Comboyne, Sundown Valley Pastoral Company, Walcha Dairy, Cordingley’ s at Walcha & Maslen’s Dairy at Gloucester. The focus of the tour was to provide farmers, many from the Drouin South Discussion Group, with an opportunity to look at the way in which the dairy & beef industry in other states had developed. “The tour explored first-hand the opportunities and challenges that face dairy & beef farmers in other parts of Australia,” […]
Italian ryegrass delivers Surge in production
WHEN MATT Loader started doing second cuts for silage he knew he was onto something good. Four years ago he started using Surge – a high yielding diploid Italian ryegrass – on out blocks and parts of his main milking area at Krowera in south Gippsland to improve the quality of the silage. “Since then I’ve done a second cut every year for the last four years on the out blocks,” Mr Loader said. “The quality is always good. It just grows, even on one of my blocks that’s quite steep. I’ve put it on all the ridge paddocks and even in a hot summer it still keeps on growing.” The success rate continues to get better. “Last year I cut it three times, that was the first time I’ve done that. It […]
New maize option yields well at Loch
A first time try of the Pioneer® hybrid P1070 maize produced excellent yields in two different locations for dairy farmer Ian Hooker, of Loch in South Gippsland, Victoria. Mr Hooker said he’d been growing maize for 15 years although it was the first time he had planted P1070. He said they put in 23 hectares all up with the 13 hectares off-farm producing yields of 26 dry matter tonnes per hectare of silage. “The 10 hectares of the dairy farm was almost as good,” he said. Maize is planted as the weather warms up in November and is normally taken through harvest as silage in April. Mr Hooker said the away block was about 20 minutes from the dairy farm […]