Northern Tablelands Local Land Services Agronomists, Georgie Oakes and Jeff Lowien note that dry sowing of winter cereal forage crops is an option that a number of producers are considering to achieve quicker feed for when it does rain.
Obviously there are risks involved but for quite a few it may be worth a punt, at least for a portion of your planned area of cereal forage crops.
Image - Dry sowing winter cereal forage crops is an option that some farmers are considering at the moment. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Ingall, ABC.
There are a few key points that need to be considered. Sowing depth can determine the success – obviously the seedbed needs to be dry with no damp areas below the surface.
Push the seed down 5 to 7 cm (2 to 2.5 inches) so that a good rainfall event is required to germinate the seed. Shallow sowings make it prone to failure if only light rainfall events occur.
Achieving this sowing depth in a cultivated seedbed is fairly straight forward. However in a direct drilling situation a number of machine types aren’t capable of penetrating to this depth, so consider the increased risk if you have one of these machines.
The variety of winter cereals you use will largely depend on what is available. Normally late maturing varieties are sown early, but as the season progresses towards winter it is the early maturing varieties that will give the quickest feed. That is particularly pertinent to the Tablelands’ producers, where winter is very cold for plant growth.
The question then arises about whether a fertiliser should be applied at sowing. With dry sowing you are not assured of good crop establishment. We recommend topdressing with nitrogen after crop emergence when you can see that a good plant population exists.
Ideally phosphorus and sulphur should be applied at planting if the soil is deficient in these nutrients, but this may be dependent on your finances.
Dry sowing of small seeded crops, for example ryegrasses, runs a much higher risk of failure as the seed can’t be sown very deep and is therefore less likely to result in good plant establishment.
Article supplied by Northern Tablelands LLS. For further information and advice on pasture and cropping management contact the Northern Tablelands Local Land Services Agronomists, Jeff Lowien in Glen Innes on 0427 102 680 or Georgie Oakes in Inverell on 0409 855 704.
