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Product Description

• Seed Agronomy Table

  Seeding Rate - Dryland (kg/ha)

  4 - 6

  Seeding Rate - High Rainfall/Irrigation (kg/ha)

  8 - 12

  Hard Seed Level Description

  High

  Waterlogging Tolerance

  Excellent

  Maturity

  Mid

• Seed Treatment

  Goldstrike®

• Enterprises For This Seed

  Beef and Sheep

  Dairy

  Silage and Hay

  Viticulture and Horticulture

• Strengths

  Sets large amounts of seed

• Limitations

  Not suited to deep infertile sands Not suited to moderate to high soil salinity Slow establishment in the first year if sown under cold conditions

• Plant Description
  Plant

  Aerial seeding, erect or semi-erect, much branched, self regenerating annual temperate legume, growing to over 80 centimetres tall, but remaining prostrate when grazed.

  Stems

  Hollow, hairless.

  Leaves

  Comprise three hairless leaflets, of varying size, shape and leaf marking. Leaflet margins can be smooth or serrated. Some leaflets are plain green while others have white to silver, pink or purple markings.

  Flowers

  Borne in clusters in a globose flower-head 2 to 3 centimetres in diameter, each comprising up to 45 small white-pink flowers.

  Pods

  3 to 4 seeds/pod, shattering readily on maturity.

  Seeds

  Ovoid-oblong, 1 to 2 millimetre long, olive green, yellow, light brown, dark brown to black in colour. 850,000 to 1.4 million seeds per kilogram depending on cultivar.

• Pasture Type And Use

  Used as a component of permanent pastures, or in hay mixtures.

• Rainfall

  Balansa clover is adapted to temperate climates with annual rainfall of 350 to 800 millimetres. Early flowering varieties are suited to lower rainfall zone, and later flowering varieties to higher rainfall areas. It can be grown successfully under irrigation.

• Soils

  Balansa clover grows across a diverse range of soil types, preferring soils of moderate to high fertility that are prone to waterlogging. It is not suited to deep sandy soils. It is adapted to acid and alkaline soils (pH water 5.4 to 9.0) although performs best where pH is below 8.3. Although displaying excellent tolerance of waterlogging, it has only low to moderate salt tolerance.

• Temperature

  Widely adapted to the agricultural areas of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. Good frost tolerance.

• Establishment
  Grasses

  Range of perennial (e.g. tall wheatgrass) and annual grasses.

  Legumes

  Medics, gland clover, persian clover, subterranean clover (particularly ssp. yanninicum). It is often sown in a mix with subterranean clover, if parts of the paddock are poorly drained or subject to waterlogging over winter.

  Sowing/Planting Rates In Mixtures

  Sown at 1 to 3 kilograms per hectare in mixtures. Higher rates used when it is the only legume sown. * ensure seed is Goldstrike® treated.

  Sowing/Planting Rates as Single Species

  Typically sown at 4 to 10 kilograms per hectare. *ensure seed is Goldstrike® treated.

  Sowing Time

  Sown April to June under rain-grown conditions, or as early as February under irrigation. Good weed control is essential due to its small seed size and slow early growth. Shallow sowing (greater than 15 millimetres) is essential.

  Inoculation

  Goldstrike® treated. The use of Goldstrike® XLR8 seed treatment is recommended to reduce damage from insects at seedling stages.

  Fertiliser

  Phosphorus (with potassium on deficient soils) often applied at sowing levels determined after soil tests. Trace elements (e.g. Cu, Mo, Zn) may be required on very infertile soils.

• Management
  Grazing/Cutting

  Balansa clover can be lightly grazed in the first year. Care is needed to limit grazing pressure during flowering to ensure adequate seed set. Paddocks should not be “crash” grazed or cut for hay in the first year if the stand is expected to regenerate. However, plant residue should be grazed over summer to encourage hardseed breakdown and maximise regeneration. It can be used for both continuous and rotational grazing but persistence is better under the former. It remains relatively prostrate when continuously grazed and is very tolerant of regular defoliation while young. Left ungrazed it will grow up to 1 metre tall in spring, the stems collapsing and growing horizontally. It does not recover well from a late cut or grazing when stems are large and the plants tall and flowering. Very little seed will be produced if mature flowering stands are hardgrazed.

  Ability to Spread

  Spreads by seed either by livestock or by movement of hay.

  Weed Potential

  Despite its ability to spread from seed, there is little evidence of it becoming an environmental weed. This is likely to be due to its preference for moderate high fertility soils and specific rhizobial requirements.

  Major Pests

  Balansa clover is very susceptible to red legged earth mite, particularly at establishment. Lucerne flea can damage stands, mainly during the warmer months. Aphids, particularly blue green aphids, can cause damage in warmer regions where they are more active.

  Major Diseases

  It is susceptible to root rots during establishment, particularly if sown late under cold, wet conditions. It is tolerant of clover scorch.

  Herbicide Susceptibility

  Refer to chemical labels for suitability and recommended rates for herbicides registered for use on balansa clover.

• Animal Production
  Feeding Value

  Balansa clover provides excellent green feed, and although quality reduces after maturity, but remains sufficient to ensure satisfactory animal production over summer e.g. crude protein levels in the dry matter at the very early bud stage may be over 20 per cent and digestibility about 80 per cent; within 4 weeks, these values may drop to about 15 per cent and 70 per cent respectively. In the same period, metabolisable energy may drop from around 11.5 to 10 megajoules per kilogram dry matter.

  Palatability

  Readily consumed by livestock, either as green or dry feed, including mature seed pods. Excellent green feed for growing and finishing livestock, Dry residues and seed pods provide useful adjunct for maintenance of sheep grazing crop stubbles. Combined

  Production Potential

  Capable of excellent productivity. Later-flowering varieties capable of higher total annual production in long-season environments.

  Livestock Disorders/Toxicity

  Bloat can occur in cattle grazing lush balansa clover dominant pastures.

• Establishment Guarantee

  At S&W Seed Company Australia we're so confident about our seed genetics and seed quality, we will replace seed at half the original purchase price if it fails to establish satisfactorily in the first thirty days* Read more