Barenburg top performers available for 2012
The addition of two new varieties ’ Seagoe and Braid ’ onto the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) recommended list of ’Grass and Clover varieties for Scotland 2011-2012’ has been welcomed by Barenbrug and AFBI. Both new listings come from their joint breeding programme and are intermediate tetraploid varieties.
Seagoe is the top-yielding intermediate tetraploid, with exceptional yields for both cutting and grazing. Its average cutting yield of 107 percent is only matched by its sister variety Malone, and its grazing yield of 111 percent is the best available.
Commenting on the new addition Barenbrug agricultural product manager David Long says: ’Seagoe is just the type of variety livestock farmers are looking for. Its outstanding quality is its exceptionally long growing season, being the top variety for spring growth and still one of the top varieties for autumn growth. All this and it has good digestibility and persistency too.
’When you look at Braid this is a very different type of intermediate tetraploid, but it has some great attributes for dairy farmers looking to get cows out early and keep them out as late as possible into the autumn.’
Braid is a very late-heading intermediate, being only three days earlier than late varieties, and can almost be treated as a late-heading variety. Its spring growth is less than Seagoe, but it more than makes up for it through the main grazing season.
Next year Scottish farmers will also be able to grow the top-yielding variety on the SAC list for the first time, as the first seed crop of Moyola was harvested in Hertfordshire this autumn. Moyola is an early-heading diploid perennial ryegrass, and was bred by crossing a New Zealand parent with the Irish variety Moy. This breeding has produced a grass with exceptional spring growth and first cut yields coupled with a performance that is maintained until late autumn.
With the inclusion for the first time of a Red Clover descriptive list to ’Grass and Clover Varieties’ the Barenbrug variety Lemmon comes under the spotlight. The list confirms the excellent performance of Lemmon, which is consistently one of the best performers in the three years of cutting trials. It also confirms its excellent reputation for combining yield with exceptional persistency.
The comprehensive list of varieties supplied by Barenbrug UK, shows both the depth and breadth of its breeding and trialling systems. With the latest additions the company now has 16 First Choice perennial ryegrasses included on the SAC list.
The company’s trials at Aberdeen, Cropvale and Loughgall have been influential in selecting the best varieties for the UK from breeders around the world and the new additions to the SAC list are testament to this continued investment in breeding leading varieties.
