Pasture Seeds

Cadiz Serradella DPIRD Subject to Availability

Cadiz Serradella is an early maturing variety of French Serradella available. Cadiz has an upright growth habit when ungrazed with good pod retention. This allows harvesting with conventional open front headers. It also has a very low level of hard seed with high levels of germinability in the pod from. This removes the need for dehulling and results in thick, highly productive regeneration. Cadiz also has the ability that prevents full germination in late April, assisting from false breaks. It has good tolerance to red-legged earth mite and aphids after it has been established. Cadiz is well suited to well drained soils ranging from sand loams to poor standards when the PH is below 7. It is suitable for areas of at least 350mm rainfall. Cadiz is a versatile alternative in that it can be utilised as an add mix to yellow Serradella in permanent or long pasture leys. Can also be used as an inter row between rows of Tagasaste. Is excellent as a lush, highly palatable spring pasture for weaning young stock. It can also be used for hay or silage production where it could be mixed with Oats. Ensure good pre sowing weed control and sow at 5 to 7 kg/ha for a seed crop (no grazing) or sow at 10kg/ha for a grazing pasture / hay or silage green manure.

Dalkeith Sub Clover Subject to Availability

Dalkeith is an early flowering subterranean clover best suited to moderately acidic, well-drained soils with an annual rainfall of approximately 300-500mm and where the growing season extends to early October. It can be used in crop rotations but performs best when the pasture phase is at least two years.

Nungarin Sub Clover Subject to Availability

Nungarin is the earliest maturing and of the hardest seeded varieties available. Tolerant of heavy grazing under set stocking. Vigorous seedings provide good winter feed. Very persistent in medium to high rainfall areas and other areas with infrequent cropping. Poor persistence on deep sands. Insufficient hard seeded for reliable persistence in tight cropping rotations (1 year crop: 1 year pasture). Susceptible to germination following ‘false breaks. Shallow rooted, so unable to capture deeper soil moisture and susceptible to premature death in dry springs.

Fran2o Serradella Subject to Availability

The French serradella cultivar Fran2o was developed in response to requests from growers for an early season French Serradella suitable for their acid sandy soils. French Serradella is normally a soft seeded legume and like most plants in cultivation does not have any seed dormancy, however CRS researchers reverse-engineered the plant by selecting and cross breeding for the hard seed characteristic and early maturity. Growers are able to use the unique hard seed breakdown patterns of the pasture legume to sow seed in summer. Autumn rains then germinate the plants to maximise nitrogen fixation and production through winter. Fran2o is highly productive and replaces the need for fertiliser nitrogen application in subsequent cereal crops. This exciting new commercial cultivar was released by the Minister for Agriculture and Food in March 2020.

Margurita Serradella Subject to Availability

Margurita was developed by Dr Brad Nutt of the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia and evaluated in the National Annual Pasture Legume Improvement Program prior to its release in 2004. Margurita was developed from Cadiz and has a hard seed content of around 55%. Margurita has a more upright growth habit than some other French serradella varieties. It has a similar flowering time to Cadiz and due to its higher hard seed content, it has much higher persistence than Cadiz. This makes Margurita useful as a component of longer-term pastures and in 1:1 pasture-crop rotations. Margurita is a mid-maturity species and takes 121 days to flower it is earlier flowering over other serradella species its hard seed level is moderate at 55% It has an upright growth structure in comparison to Cadiz and tends to be hardier to more tolerant grazing. Early flowering approximately 114 days at Perth with a range from 103 to 125 days. Prepared by Brad Nutt of the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WADPIRD)